What Happens On Deck
by stephluvvsyou
Summary: ...stays on deck? - ON HIATUS.
1. The Morning After

**AN : So first off, I want to thank everyone who read and left feedback on my one shot 'His Girl'. It was all very encouraging especially since it was my first Suite Life fic. So yay! Second of all, I was actually trying to brainstorm for another one shot but my inspiration decided to take another course, and so here I am with the first part to a chapter fic, which I also hope you all will take a liking to this, and enjoy it. I still wish there was more Zack/London fic out there! But I wanted to try and bring a good one to the table myself, so! **

_Disclaimer : I do not own The Suite Life On Deck or any of the characters associated._

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What Happens On Deck : Part One -

The Morning After

London yawned drowsily as her eyes blinked open. The morning sunlight was seeping through the porthole above her head, and she could hear the noisy seagulls outside. She felt like crap. Urgh. She was not ready to get up right now. She wished those damned birds would shut up.

She squinted her eyes a little as she propped herself up on an elbow and glanced at her clock. It was a little after 6am. Classes started in 2 hours, but maybe she would just blow them off today. She had a pounding headache.

Her memory wasn't working right now, but she definitely felt like she must have stayed up way too late.

She really needed to go to the bathroom, but she was too lazy to do it. Right now, she just wanted to keep her eyes closed and get some more sleep. She let her head lay back down on the pillow as she shimmied herself back up underneath her blanket. She exhaled loudly as she prepared to fall back into a deep sleep.

Then, an arm flopped over on top of her.

What the hell?

Damn Bailey and her stupid sleepwalking. This would be the fourth time she'd managed to crawl into bed with her while sleeping. Today? London was not in the mood to roll over and catch the hillbilly drooling on her pillow again. She sat back up, annoyed, and whipped her head around to give the country girl a piece of her mind.

Bailey had obviously buried herself under London's blanket with her, because only her arm was hanging out of it. The one she had so kindly flung across London's shoulder.

She was so not in the mood for this. She was definitely going to request that Bailey get another roommate, and this time, no amount of arguing with Mr. Moseby was going to change her mind. She reached up, gripped the top of the blanket and flung it off, before she realized, that it wasn't Bailey sleeping in her bed with her this time.

"AHHHH!" London screamed bloody murder as she flew up off the bed in a blur.

"AHHHH!" the other person in bed screamed in response, before promptly rolling off the side of it. There was a thud as the body smacked the floor in between her and Bailey's bed.

"What..." London's voice shook with nerves as a hand flew to her mouth and covered it. She glanced down at herself and realized, she didn't have much on as far as clothes went. She looked up at the groaning figure that had just thrown himself out of her bed in a panic, as his hand reached up and grabbed the side of the mattress.

As he pulled himself up into a sitting position, his other hand rested on his forehead. Fuck. What a headache. His eyes squinted in the sunlight pouring through the porthole as he continued to attempt to get his vision focused.

"Do you mind telling me why the hell you're in my bedroom? In my bed? With me?" the heiress screeched, before promptly bringing her hand back to her forehead as well. She immediately whipped around to face her side table, where she kept her tylenol.

The boy on the floor's eyes popped out when he recognized the person's voice whom had addressed him, and his eyes shifted towards her. An eyebrow raised as he studied the back side of her. What a lovely sight. He couldn't help but stare, but when the girl spun back around to face him, glaring, he was snapped back to reality. A horrified expression brushed over him, "L...London?"

"Don't tell me you sleep walk too!" London snapped, clearly even more agitated at this point, because for one, the birds were still being loud and unpleasant, two, she had a splitting headache, and three, she didn't know what the hell was going on.

"Not really." he replied, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, while the other one still rested on top of the mattress, keeping him stable in his sitting position. He still hadn't attempted getting up from the floor. "That's more of a Cody thing."

London huffed in response, "Well," she threw her hand up sarcastically, "He's your twin, it might help to have yourself tested."

Zack frowned, "Yes London." he paused as he changed his tone to sarcasm as well. If she wanted to play this game with him this early in the morning, he'd play it right back. Besides, he wasn't in the mood. His head was killing him, and he wasn't really sure why he was in here in the first place. "Because I'm sure they have testing for something that ridiculous."

"Hey!" London snapped, her judging eyes boring through him like he was on a witness stand, "You still haven't told me why the heck you're in here in the first place. Don't you have any respect for a girl's privacy?"

Zack wanted to retaliate immediately, but his eyes were scanning her body again. How the hell was he supposed to know how he'd gotten into her room? He didn't remember much from the night before. Just that he had been at the school dance. And he'd been there with Maya. So why he was in London's room? He'd really love to know. But he couldn't concentrate. Not with his head pounding like this, and her yapping at him. Her being half dressed was not helping things either. He slapped his hand to his forehead again, while the other hand he held up towards her, "Okay first of all, put some clothes on."

London gasped. Crap! She'd forgotten all about the fact that she wasn't exactly covered enough, especially for Zack's presence. Why were half her clothes off anyway? She got cold during the night. In fact she'd woken up on many random nights to put more layers on. She snatched the comforter off her bed and wrapped it around her hastily.

When Zack looked back over at her, she was buried in her comforter. At least now he could concentrate on the conversation rather than the lack of clothes. "Second of all, I don't know why I'm in here. But I'd appreciate it if you'd stop bitching at me long enough so that I could try and remember."

London gasped again, "How dare you speak to me like that in _my_ room!"

Zack stared at her blankly for a moment, before shaking his head slightly, "What are you going to do? Call your 'daddy' on me?"

London scowled towards him, and without saying anything turned on her heel and stormed into the bathroom. Zack's eyes followed her before the door was fiercely slammed shut. He shook his head again and exhaled slowly, before once more letting his head rest in his hand as he rubbed his temples in a frustrated manner. "Jesus." he mumbled to himself stressfully. What did she expect him to do? Snap his fingers and magically manage to have the recent nights memories come flooding back to him? Lord knew he couldn't rely on her to remember anything she did even 5 minutes ago.

There were a number of reasons why he could be in London's room right now. Maybe he'd wanted to stay out late and come to hang out with her, then fallen asleep? Bailey's bed wasn't occupied which meant she'd fallen asleep in someone else's cabin as well. He didn't know. And he couldn't spend too much time thinking about it either. Not with this headache. He needed to get some more sleep. Then maybe things would make better sense later.

As he miserably stood to his feet, he noticed that something was wrong with his appearance also. Panic immediately flooded into his brain. Why, in all of hell, was he in just his boxers? No. It didn't make sense. London half naked? Him half naked? Waking up in the same bed as each other? Surely not. There was no way. Not in a million years would he even consider...

Well. That wasn't entirely true. He'd maybe thought about it once or twice. Because London was hot. But he'd have never actually done anything with...

Oh God. Oh dear God.

"Well it looks like you need to put some clothes on yourself." London's voice tore through his thoughts. "Your scrawny body sure isn't pleasant on the eyes."

Zack's jaw dropped open. How dare she! She was babbling nonsense. Girls would line up to see him in his boxers. She should be feeling privelaged. Instead, she was insulting him?

He slowly turned his head to glare at her. "Scrawny?" he questioned slowly, his tone laced with hints of anger and annoyance. "_I'm _scrawny?" He held up his arms, his fists slowly clenching, "Just so you know, my _'scrawny' _body is just dying to throw yours right out of the porthole!"

London had found her pajamas lying on the bathroom floor. So she'd essentially put them on and left the comforter on the floor in there. She still didn't know what could possibly have possessed her to take them off at all. Being in only her under garments and then waking up next to Zack sleeping in her bed with her was something like out of a nightmare. As she watched him calm his self down, she couldn't help but think that maybe her saying he was 'scrawny' hadn't been entirely accurate. There was definitely some nice muscle on him. But she couldn't allow herself to be attracted to Zack. That was just ridiculous. Period.

"London!" Zack snapped, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"What?" London barked back, not enjoying his attitude at all this morning.

"Hand me that tylenol and help me find my shirt, space cadet." Zack demanded in a little lighter tone.

"Fine." London mumbled as she grabbed the bottle from her table and threw it towards him. He didn't catch it. Instead it bounced right off his chest and landed on the floor. She ignored the immediate glare he had shot towards her, before her eyes started scanning the room for his missing shirt. "And I don't know what you meant by 'space cadet', but you need to watch your language!"

Zack rolled his eyes as he bent down to retrieve the tylenol bottle. If his suspicions of what had happened last night ended up being true? He was going to seriously lose his mind. He popped the lid off and took 2 without water. Though he sure was craving a big glass of it right now, he just wanted his head to stop hurting so he could deal with this woman. No sooner had he gotten the cap back on the bottle, another object slapped him on the back of the head.

He grabbed it in his hand furiously and whipped around towards her, "Stop, throwing things at me!"

"Why should I? You're being a jerk!" London fired back towards him, "You told me to help you find your stupid shirt anyway!"

"Yeah well." Zack began as he pulled the shirt he'd been smacked with over his head. "You haven't been a walk in the park this morning either, princess."

"I never said anything about taking a walk in the park." London replied, "Besides, we're on the ocean. I'm pretty sure there aren't any parks."

'Wow'. Zack thought as he once again, rubbed his face in a stressful manner. He wasn't going to be able to deal with this. Not this morning. Not with his head pounding. Not with her relentlessly annoying and air-headed attitude.

"And even if there was," London continued on, as she threw Zack's pants towards him. They smacked his mid-section, and he grunted before gazing at her as if he wanted her to drop dead. She pointed towards him, "I wouldn't be walking there with you!"

He was watching London as she tossed random items through the air, clearly still searching for something. When he seen her pick up one of his shoes, and position her arm back to launch it towards him, his hands flew up. "DO NOT THROW THAT!"

London's arms fell to her sides as she scowled at him. Seriously she just wanted him to leave. First he sleepwalks into her room and flops his lazy, heavy arm over the top of her, and then he snaps at her and tells her he wants to throw her out of the porthole?

He stormed over to her and snatched the shoe out of her hand hastily, before she decided to ignore what he'd said and throw them anyway. "Now would you sit down? I think we need to talk about this." He ordered, pointing towards the side of the bed, where she'd hopefully plant her cranky little ass. He really didn't want to talk to her anymore right now. But facing facts, the way they'd woken up? Things weren't looking good on their situation right now. In fact, he was afraid that they'd participated in a blissful, yet, potentially bad activity last night.

Of course, London probably had no clue as to what was going on at all.

"Why do we need to talk about this? You obviously don't-" London began to argue.

"London!" Zack interrupted. London pulled her mouth shut. "Just sit down!"

London, much to his surprise, did just that. Over the many years of being London's friend, he'd learned that sometimes you just had to grab the girl by the bullhorns and man handle her if you were going to get a word in edge wise. Especially when she was having one of her tantrums.

"Just trust me. If I didn't feel like this was important, I would have left already." Zack told, walking over towards the door to the cabin. He peeked out the spy hole. The corridor was still quiet. Good. Even their arguing hadn't been enough to alarm anyone out of their sleep yet. He locked the door just in case, before walking back to the bed and sitting down next to her.

Zack felt his tongue catch in his throat as he swallowed hard. Maybe this was all just a nightmare, and he was going to wake up at any point in time. He subconsciously crossed his fingers. Yeah. He was going to rely on that reasoning for the time being. He glanced at London, who was sitting next to him in a huffy pout. Her arms were folded across her chest so hard, she looked scrunched. She was glaring at him, waiting for him to say something to her.

"London, did we?" Zack began, but paused, thinking of the best way to ask this question. "What's the last thing you remember that happened last night?"

"Hmm." London started as she turned her face away from him. He could tell the wheels in her head were attempting to turn as she reminisced last night's events. "Well I remember how hideously dressed Bailey was at the dance."

Zack rolled his eyes. "Okay, that can't possibly be the last thing you remember about last night." He paused, remembering whom he was talking to. "But then again I guess it could be."

"Oooh!" London gasped, and Zack's head snapped around to look at her. "I had a bottle of Cham-peg-nay." She added.

Zack's eyes popped out a little. Crap. "Where did you get a bottle of that? There was no alcohol at the school dance!"

"It wasn't alcohol, it was Cham-peg-nay." London corrected, "And I wasn't at the school dance. I was downstairs dining with the rich folk. The school dance was boring." She waved her hand through the air, "I wasn't going to stay up there and watch Cody and you dance with your horribly dressed dates."

Okay, so. That would explain London's bad mood this morning. She was hung over. But he still needed to find out why and how he got into her bedroom, and…what exactly he and she had done after he arrived. Which, if he wanted to trust his instinct, he already knew. But he didn't want to right now. He wanted to get the facts straight.

Why oh why would he come to London's room whenever he should have been in Maya's? This wasn't making any sense. He was just going to have to talk to Maya as soon as possible. But first…

"Look London. I don't know why I came to your room." He started, "But I'm going to find out."

"You better." London replied, "Because I don't appreciate people coming to a slumber party when they're not invited!"

Zack rolled his eyes yet again. "Well. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a slumber party. And I don't know if I was invited or not, but –"

He was cut short when there was a knock on the door. London stood from the bed to go answer it, but Zack grabbed her by the arm to stop her. "Wait! London!" Zack strained out in a whisper.

"London!" a muffled voice called out from the other side of the door, "Wake up!"

"It's Bailey!" Zack panicked, as his head darted to random locations around the room.

"Well duh it's Bailey! Who else would it be?" London snapped in response, as she jerked her arm away from Zack.

"I need to hide!" Zack replied towards her as he jumped up off the bed, "I'll be in trouble if she finds me in here!" he paced for a moment. He could always hide in the bathroom, but, he'd for sure be found there. This was not good. Bailey coming in and finding him. He still hadn't even put his pants on.

"Well then what-"

"Just go answer the door!" Zack interrupted, as he nudged London that way, "But she can't know that I'm here!"

London watched Zack dive underneath her bed, before walking over to the door and opening it up.

"Wow. I can't believe you're actually awake." Bailey said, as she studied London's face for a second. "You look terrible."

London scoffed, "Well I still look better than you do." She insulted, as Bailey walked past her into the cabin.

Zack was feeling clausterphobic already underneath the small bed. He turned his head to the side and noticed one of his shoes. No wonder London had only found one of them. She would have actually had to look for the other one.

He did his best not to shift or shuffle or make any kind of noise that would give away the fact that he was under there right now. But he also had to prepare himself in case he was found. Because, let's face it. London trying to keep him hidden? Yeah…there was no guarantee that was going to actually work.

"What time did you finally go to bed last night London? I mean, I had to bunk with Addison." Bailey remarked in a slight tone of distress. "Do you know how hard that was for me?"

"Well I didn't ask you to go sleep in her room." London replied, waving her hand towards her. After all, she didn't ask, therefore it was Bailey's own damned fault.

"Well I wasn't going to sit in here and listen to you and Zack acting obnoxious all night long." Bailey fired back, as she walked towards her closet to pick out today's clothes.

"Me? Obnoxious?" London huffed. "Not possible. Zack I can believe."

Zack scowled from under the bed. Typical.

"Well either way. You both were being loud." Bailey replied, as she pulled out her clothes and turned back towards London, "And it was after one in the morning. At the rate you both were going, I just wasn't even going to bother fighting for some peace and quiet."

So they had been in here late together. And they were both being loud and 'obnoxious'? Zack's brain was still riddled. He still didn't quite understand it all yet. At least though, the pieces were slowly coming back.

"Well it's over now." Bailey sighed, as she walked towards the bathroom, "I'm getting a shower."

"Bye!" London waved at her as she walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Well, that had been easier than Zack had thought it would be. Thank God London didn't decide to wake up without any brains at all this morning. London peeked up under the bed at him, "She's gone. Now leave!"

Zack cursed under his breath as he reached an arm out to start pulling himself out from under the bed, but froze when he heard the bathroom door start opening up again.

London gasped and spun around as the bathroom door opened up. She stumbled back slightly, completely crushing Zack's hand under her foot as Bailey walked out the door with an annoyed look on her face.

Zack had his hand slapped over his mouth to keep from yelling out in pain. It was one thing that she had stepped on his hand in the first place. It was another that her foot was still on it.

"London, why was your dress from last night laying in the bottom of the shower?" Bailey quizzed as she held London's dress out to her.

London gasped as she stepped forward and snatched the dress out of Bailey's hands. "You didn't get it wet did you?"

Zack took advantage of his chance to move his hand out of the way of London's footpath. He drew it to himself and shook it while it stung in pain.

"Because this material is not water proof!" London continued on about the dress.

"I also found this." Bailey ignored London's whining about the dress completely and held out an empty bottle towards her.

"What is this?" London asked as she grabbed the bottle from her hand and her eyes scanned the label. "Cham-peg-nay?"

Bailey sighed, "It's Champagne." She took a couple steps towards London, "London, did you drink this?"

"Yep!" London answered promptly, before glancing back up at Bailey, who now had a horrified expression on her face, "What's the big deal? It's all they were serving in the dining room last night."

"How did you even get into the dining room last night?" Bailey asked pointedly, "You were supposed to be at the school dance!"

"My daddy owns the ship. I can go where I want." London replied, as she laid the empty bottle on her bed. "Besides that school dance was boring. I wasn't going to waste my evening there."

"Oh my-" Bailey started, but cut herself off. She stared at London blankly for a moment before silently turning back towards the bathroom, walking inside, and shutting the door behind her. No wonder London had been obnoxious last night. She'd been drinking. And Zack must have indulged himself also.

Zack waited until he heard the shower water start running before pulling himself out from under the bed. He wasn't going to risk almost getting caught again. Or being stepped on for that matter.

Once he was out he grabbed the champagne bottle from London's bed and turned to her. "London, did I drink this last night?"

"Well, you took it away from me." London replied, "But I don't know what you did with it after that."

She walked to her closet. All she wanted was for everyone to leave the cabin. But now that her headache was going away she decided she should probably just go to class anyway and save herself the detention time. She jumped slightly as Zack emitted an uncontrolled 'Damn it!' from where he was standing beside her bed. She turned around to glance at him again. "What?"

He gave her a grim expression. "London."

He paused, feeling choked up once again as she waited for an answer. Finally he decided to just bite the bullet and say it. Better now than never. Plus he was guaranteed that what he thought had happened last night, did in fact happen. Too many clues pointed towards that direction. The drinking. The late hour together. Waking up half naked. He knew for a fact he wouldn't have taken advantage of London like that. He would have had to indulge himself. He didn't feel as hung over as she appeared to be, but he had the headache as well, and the craving for water. And he would have had to be drunk to do that with London anyway. Not that he wouldn't. There was just a line between them that he wouldn't cross. Well…apparently until now. He glanced up at her. "I think we slept together last night."

London rolled her eyes. "Well duh. I woke up and you were in my bed. Of course we slept together."

"No London." Zack squeezed his eyes shut, trying to control himself from just going off on the heiress. "Not slept together like a slumber party." He paused, "I mean _slept together_. Like your clothes were off. Mine were off…" he trailed off as he studied her expression. She was still confused. "We had both been drinking…"

She still wasn't getting it so he scoured his head for any example he could give her to make the lightbulb in her head go off.

"Okay London." Zack started, rubbing his hands together like he was scheming. "Do you remember that movie we watched last week where the guy and girl were at a party? And they'd had a lot to drink?"

London looked towards the ceiling, as if contemplating this for a moment. When she remembered, she nodded a couple of times.

"You remember what they did that night?"

"Yeah." London replied. "They slept together. So what." She shrugged.

"It's what they did when they slept together that you need to pay attention to." Zack tried again. "They woke up half dressed like we did this morning."

"Yeah but that's because they…" London trailed off. Zack could tell the wheels in her head had finally started turning. She felt nauseated all of a sudden. Her jaw dropped open and her hand flew to her mouth to cover it as she glanced down at the ground.

No no no no no!

She couldn't have possibly let herself do something with Zack. She'd never do _that_ with the likes of him.

Her head whipped back up to face him. "That's ridiculous!" she snapped. "I don't get _close_ with poor folk!"

Zack was immediately offended by this. How dare she. "Well I'm pretty sure you did!" he snapped, pointing an accusing finger at her, "Trust me I don't want to believe we were intimate last night either but we have to face facts here!"

"I don't know what intimate means, but I wasn't being it with you!" London argued back, "If anything happened it was the Cham-peg-nay's fault!"

Zack wanted to rip his hair out. "CHAMPAGNE!"

"WHATEVER!" London retorted, before turning her back on him.

She needed to get back to deciding on what to wear. She wasn't going to listen to Zack's babbling. What kind of nonsense was he trying to put into her mind? He knew better than to try and convince her that something that physical had happened between them. Course, she didn't really remember much about last night. So therefore, if she couldn't remember it, it never happened.

Zack knew at this point talking about it any further would be useless. He did, however need to keep London from running her mouth about this to anyone, especially Bailey or Maya. He walked to the closet door and grabbed her arm gently but firmly, his tone strict, "Listen London, do NOT tell Bailey or Maya about this."

"There's nothing to tell." London shrugged. "I don't remember doing it, so, I didn't."

"That doesn't mean that…" Zack began to argue, but stopped himself. It just wasn't worth it to continue this with her anymore for the time being. He released her arm. "Whatever. You're impossible right now."

London didn't reply, she just simply gave him a wave so that he'd maybe finally dismiss himself. If she was lucky. She hated arguing with him, and could only do it for so long before she had to just simply separate herself from him.

Zack knew the signal. He knew when enough was enough. And right now, they'd had way beyond their fill of each other. Especially given the circumstances. He turned around and headed for the door. Hopefully he could get back to his cabin, shower, get ready for class, then talk to Maya before he was late.

"Wait!" London called out to him before he could open the door.

"What?" Zack asked as he turned back around. Something slapped over his face. His arms fell to his sides.

"You might want to put those on before you leave." London said as he scowled and removed his pants from the front of his face.

He cursed under his breath for what must have been the hundredth time that morning as he stumbled into his pants.

London shook her head as she watched Zack leave. Bailey, who'd just finished up her shower emerged from the bathroom, hair wrapped in her towel and toothbrush in her mouth. "Who just left?"

London blinked a couple of times before shrugging. "What do you mean?"

"I could have sworn I just heard you talking to someone." Bailey replied, pulling the toothbrush from her mouth and holding it out in a questioning stance.

"Ha." London replied, "Silly Bailey. There was no one here. I think maybe you fell off of one too many horses." She waved her off as walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Bailey stood there, dumbfounded for a moment, before turning towards the bathroom door. "Is she still drunk?" she mumbled to herself as she shook her head and prepared to get dressed.

London sure was acting strange this morning. She could guarantee someone had just been in this room with her.

Whatever. Maybe it was lack of sleep that was getting to her. Addison had kept her up an hour after getting there, and Bailey hadn't really even been able to understand what she was saying or talking about. She never did.

She walked over between the beds to grab her hand lotion, and nearly tripped and fell into the table. When she looked down to see just what random object tried to attack her, she felt even more puzzled about the morning's events. Was that…Zack's shoe on the floor? Just how long had he stayed and hung out with London last night? Long enough to get comfortable and take off his shoes? Something wasn't setting right about this.

When London re emerged from the bathroom, Bailey was sitting on the side of her bed just staring towards her with a look of confusion all over her face.

"What?" London asked, as she paused her footsteps. What was it now?

"London." Bailey began as she stood from the bed. "Why exactly is Zack's shoe on our bedroom floor?" she held the shoe up for London to see.

London's eyes bulged out a little as she stared at the shoe. "Uh…" she paused, as Bailey dropped the shoe to the floor, folded her arms over her chest, and glared at her like she wanted the whole truth and nothing but the truth. "I borrowed it."

London walked over to her small vanity to decide on jewelry for the day, but Bailey followed her.

"I'm not stupid London." Bailey said, as London took a seat in front of her mirror. "The champagne. You and Zack being in here late together. His shoe on the floor. Your dress in the shower. Voices outside while I was in the bathroom." She walked to London's side and leaned onto the vanity. "Not to mention the door was locked when I came back."

London had been trying to not make eye contact with Bailey during her rant. She was just going to attempt ignoring her. Why did she have to be so damned suspicious? She felt like she was being drilled by Mr. Moseby over why she skipped class, or taken the helicopter off the ship for a while.

"Spill it London." Bailey stated firmly. "I know something was going on in here this morning."

London remained silent as she attempted to choose what color eye shadow to put on.

Bailey sighed, before pushing herself off the desk and walking away. "Fine."

London sighed in relief, but no sooner had Bailey walked away, she was back, holding the champagne bottle.

"If you want to keep secrets from me," Bailey said, as she finally caught London's gaze, "I could always let Mr. Moseby know that you that you decided to have your own little party last night."

London gasped. "You can't black male me!"

"Hey." Bailey started as she raised her free hand up a little, "Just because I'm a country girl doesn't mean I don't know how to bargain with the business people."

London leaned back in her chair. Crap. What was she supposed to do now? Damn Bailey.

After a moment of silence between them, London finally leaned up in her chair. "Fine. But you have to promise not to tell anyone what I say."

**X**

"Hey there you are!" Marcus greeted Zack as he walked through the door of the cabin. After getting a better glance at his appearance, he frowned. "Man, you look terrible."

Zack scoffed as he paced over to his closet. He was in a hurry now. He needed to talk to Maya before class started. "Not now Marcus."

Marcus stood up from his bed, "Hey hey it's all good. I was wondering if you were going to come back last night." He walked over to Zack and nudged him with his elbow, smirk forming on his face, "So tell me…how was it?"

Zack's eyes grew wide, "How was what? What are you talking about?" he asked, almost panicked.

Marcus took a step back from him and held his hands up, "Calm down dude, you're not in trouble."

Zack exhaled slowly, before resuming pulling out a clean pair of pants from his closet.

"I just wanted to know how your night with her went." Marcus resumed conversation, the smirk coming back to his face.

"My night with who? What? Who is 'her' exactly?" Zack had whipped around in a panic again.

"Okay now you're freaking me out." Marcus told, before he reached up and put his hand on Zack's shoulder, "Are you feeling okay?"

Zack took another deep breath. He had to keep himself pulled together right now. He didn't have time for a breakdown. He shrugged Marcus' hand off his shoulder, "Yeah I'm fine. Sorry." He pulled a shirt out of the closet and started walking towards the bathroom. "I just don't know what you mean."

Marcus chuckled a little. "Sure you do!" he followed Zack a couple of steps, "I'm talking about your night with Maya."

"Oh…" Zack replied, trying to fake a smile at Marcus. He laughed slightly, but knew he wasn't being convincing enough because Marcus had his eyebrow raised towards him. "You know I…I really don't recall all the details." He said nervously as he opened the bathroom door. "I really need to shower, talk to you later!"

The door slammed shut, and Marcus was left standing there, a look of confusion all over his face. A realization dawned on him as he called out to the door, "Hey! You know you forgot your shoes?"

**X**

An hour later, Zack was scavenging the hallway outside the classroom door, waiting for Maya. He was rubbing his hands together nervously as he stood on his tip toes, trying to peer over the heads of other students and passengers as they made their way along the side of the ship.

"Zack?"

Crap.

"What are you doing here so early? You never show up for class on time." Cody remarked as he glanced from his watch, to Zack, puzzled completely over the situation at hand.

Zack stole a glance at his brother, before looking past him, his eyes still in search for Maya.

"You know." Cody started, "Marcus told me you were acting strange this morning."

"I wasn't acting strange, I was just…" Zack trailed off as he thought he'd spotted her. He pushed Cody out of the way, before realizing that it had been a false alarm. He sighed deeply, and turned to see his brother giving him the same, puzzled look that Marcus had been giving him that morning. "Look. I'm just a little busy."

"With what?" Cody asked, his tone deadpanning, "Deciding which scent your next stink bomb should be?"

Zack glared towards him. "No." he stated. Cody raised a disbelieving eyebrow, causing Zack to roll his eyes in response, before shifting his weight and folding his arms, "For your information, I'm waiting to talk to Maya."

"Maya?" Cody questioned, before putting on an all-too-knowing expression. "Wait, let me guess. You ditched her for someone else last night?"

"How did you know that?" Zack let the words escape his mouth before he knew what he was saying. He looked away from his brother uncomfortably as he mentally slapped himself. Great. Time to cover that one up. And quick. "What I meant to say was…why would you think that?" he flashed his brother a nervous smile.

It was too late. Cody was on to him now. Zack couldn't believe he had just been so reckless with his words. Now he was going to have to try and throw some excuse at Cody to explain where he was last night. Because he definitely was not going to tell him that he'd been with London. No way. That was just another nightmare waiting to happen.

His eyes scanned the crowd furiously. Where the hell was Maya this morning? It was getting close to 8, and there had still been no sign of her. He was getting impatient, and his brother was probably going to start drilling him at any given moment now. "God, where is she?" he murmured quietly, as he once again stood tip toe to see if he could catch a glimpse of her.

"You blew her off?" Cody questioned loudly, as he stared his brother down with shock.

"I never said that." Zack replied, as he pointed a finger towards Cody.

"Zack, all I've heard about from you is how much you like Maya since the moment she arrived on the ship!" Cody complained, throwing his hands out dramatically, "Then she finally lets you take her to the dance and you blew her off?"

"I didn't-" Zack cut himself off as he held up his arms to Cody, motioning for him to lower his tone as he faced him, "Look I didn't mean to blow her off."

"What do you mean, you 'didn't mean to blow her off'?" Cody fired back. He was irritated. He'd put up with Zack's droning on and on about this girl for what seemed like years now. And the first chance he gets with her and he screws it up? Unbelievable. Typical, but, unbelievable.

Cody was still glaring at Zack, but he'd noticed his face had gone slightly pale as he watched the students shuffling around on the side deck. Seriously, what was his problem? Was Maya seriously it? Sure, Zack liked the girl, but let's face facts. He didn't exactly have a good record with girls. He blew off dates all the time for other dates and hardly broke a sweat about it. In fact, Cody doubted there was even a capability of Zack feeling guilty for any reason concerning his 'dates'. But now he looked like he was going to faint. He was wringing his hands together nervously.

"Cody." Bailey greeted as she walked up to the twins. She gave Cody a small smile, before her expression changed to that of an uncomfortable one, "Zack." She couldn't bring herself to look at him, so she walked into the classroom without another word.

Walking behind her, was London. Cody was puzzled now more than ever. First of all, Bailey's entire demeanor hadn't been normal at all. She looked like she had to force herself to smile, and she hadn't even looked at Zack. Secondly, here stood London, looking as if she'd just been told her daddy wasn't sending her allowance this week. Was everyone going loopy?

He watched London and Zack as they attempted to make eye contact. This had to be the most excruciatingly awkward display he'd ever seen between the two of them. As soon as Zack would gaze at London, she'd look down. Then vice-versa. After a few more seconds of uncomfortable silence, London simply walked into class. She hadn't even bothered greeting either of them at all. Cody glanced down at his watch again. Six minutes until class started.

He plowed through his thoughts, trying to piece together any kind of explanation for what just happened. Zack showing up early for class, waiting to talk to Maya, who, more than likely did in fact get blown off last night. Bailey shows up, can't even look Zack in the eyes, looking like she had way too much on her mind at the moment. Then London, who didn't say a word at all, when normally she'd be bragging about how cute she looked today, about how hideous everyone else looked, and 'yay me!'. She didn't even say anything to Zack, and he was her best friend. What the frack was going on here?

There was still no sign of Maya, and Cody could tell his brother's patience was wearing really thin at the moment. A little color had started returning to his face, but, still. "Alright." Cody finally broke through the silence that had been plaguing the area for several minutes now, "Everyone is acting crazy and I have a feeling that you know why." He shot a pointed look at Zack.

"Shh not now!" Zack waved him off, "Maya's finally coming."

Cody didn't know how Zack was going to hold a conversation with Maya at this point, seeing as it was now only 2 minutes away from class starting, but never the less, he wanted to hear this. He'd give himself 30 seconds, before the fear of being tardy set in and he'd go sit down before losing his mind.

"Maya!" Zack greeted, as she walked up to the classroom doorway. "Hey, I need to talk to you about last night."

"Last night?" Maya questioned, arms crossed over her chest as she glared at Zack.

Zack felt nervous under her stare, but he couldn't let that detour him from getting the information he needed out of her. "Yeah see, I don't really remember everything that-"

"Really?" Maya questioned again, this time with sarcasm laced in her tone. She took a couple steps towards Zack, and leaned forward slightly. "Why don't you go ask London?" she continued, before letting her arms fall to her sides as she turned away from him. She stopped right before entering the room, and turned halfway again to make one last jab. "I mean, you were just so eager to see her last night. Ran to her beckoning call without question." She looked at him with disgust. "If she's so special, then you can talk to her about it."

Zack's jaw was hanging slightly open as he watched her enter the classroom. He felt bad. He really did. But that was an attitude he wished he'd never come into contact with. He supposed he deserved it, in a way, but damn.

His eyes lingered over to Cody, who was staring at him in near shock. His jaw was hanging slightly open as well. Before he could say anything, Cody had motioned a finger towards the door, "You blew her off for _London_?"

Zack sighed. This day had just gotten off to the worst possible start ever. Waking up with London. Dodging Marcus' 20 questions. Being snapped at by Maya. And now Cody was going to interrogate him as soon as he had the chance. For the first time ever, Zack was glad class was starting. Maybe Miss T would bore him enough today that he could finally get some much needed shut eye during class. Then, MAYBE then, he'd feel like dealing with Cody. But right now, all he could do, was throw his hands in the air. "So sue me." He murmured, as he sauntered through the doorway, with a very distressed Cody following.

* * *

**AN : So let me know if you guys want to keep reading more, or if you think I should scrap this idea while I'm ahead! Lol! But I really do hope you like it! :) Thanks for reading!**


	2. Extra Pain And RealLiver

**AN : I know I kept you waiting way too long for the 2nd part and for that I'm truly sorry. But, however, I do want to take this moment to thank everyone who left me the feedback that I'd wanted so badly, because I didn't know if this story should even get a chance or not. So, to all of you that did, my deepest appreciation to you for taking the time to make me feel better. The response was more than I expected. :) This part seems a little shorter, because I really wanted to get this story updated, but for some reason I felt like I covered alot of ground here. So I hope that you guys all enjoy it! And I know that the chapter title is a little weird, but I promise you'll understand where it comes from once you read. **

_Disclaimer : I do not own The Suite Life On Deck or any of the characters associated._

* * *

What Happens On Deck : Part Two-

Extra Pain and Real-Liver

"London, you realize how bad things look concerning this morning?" Bailey asked, before taking a bite of her taco.

London rolled her eyes in annoyance. Ever since she'd told Bailey about the Zack fiasco, she hadn't shut up about it. She was leaned back against her chair, watching her roomie crunch her taco. Whenever Bailey took her focus off her food again and made eye contact, London shifted in her seat and leaned up over the edge of the table, careful not to lean into her untouched plate of food. "Look, nothing happened."

"How do you know that for sure?" Bailey retorted immediately, "Because so far London, all I've heard is reasons why it probably did."

"Zack's my best friend, that's how I know." London replied, as she picked up the fork from beside her plate. "I don't remember anything. And neither of us would do that with one another, so..." she trailed off when she noticed Bailey had stopped chewing her food and been staring at her in disbelief.

"London." Bailey managed out, before holding up her finger to pause the conversation momentarily. She chewed a few more times, and then swallowed, before turning towards her again. "While Zack may be your best friend, there's something you need to remember about him. He's a player." Bailey stated all-knowingly, holding her hand up, "He's dated half the girls on this ship. You think it's never crossed his mind just once?"

"Has what never crossed his mind just once?" London asked, puzzled. She'd lost interest in the conversation again. She was tired of Bailey drilling her about this. She was tired of talking about Zack. Half the reason why she was rich with tons of money was so that she could bribe people with money to go away when they annoyed her, but even that hadn't worked on Bailey. She'd followed her everywhere since leaving the cabin for class. And all she wanted to talk about was what had happened during the night. It wasn't any of her business anyway. The only reason she'd told was because unfortunately, she was smarter than the average farm girl.

"Sleeping with the hot rich girl on board!" Bailey shouted all too loudly. She slapped a hand over her mouth as London glared towards her.

They glanced around carefully. Luckily they only had a couple of passengers' attention. They didn't matter anyway.

"Look I'm tired of talking about it." London told, stabbing her grilled fish that had been specially prepared, like all her food was, with her fork. "I don't remember what happened last night, so I want to move on with my life. I need to get back to the important things like my looks and shopping."

Just the mention of her looks and shopping, brought that air headed smile and gaze to her face. Shopping. She sure did need it after a day like this. Hopefully they'd dock somewhere soon so she could get off this stupid ship and away from everyone for a few hours. That's what she really, really needed.

"So what, you're just going to pretend it didn't happen?" Bailey asked, clearly irritated that London didn't want to face the reality of this issue and deal with it properly.

"Yep!" London answered hastily as she grabbed her purse from beside her and scampered as quickly away from the table as she could.

"London!" Bailey called after the escaping heiress. She wasn't going to leave her plate on taco day. She sighed and fell back into her chair.

She didn't understand how London was playing everything off like it wasn't a big deal. If she'd really slept with Zack, it was definitely a big deal. Of course, London didn't remember, but that didn't mean it didn't happen. She had been drinking. Of course she wouldn't remember. She didn't remember much anyway, but this was serious.

Bailey sighed, losing herself in her thoughts as all the background noise on the deck was fading away. She didn't know what to make of the information London had given her. The waking up and Zack was just there. The search for his clothes on the floor. The him being a jerk to her. Him tellng her that they'd engaged in vigorous activities. Zack's sex life was something Bailey didn't want to think about at all, but he obviously knew the signs of a morning after session.

There was always the possibility that he hadn't drunk at all. That he'd taken advantage of her vulnerability.

Bailey mentally slapped herself. No. Zack was a lot of things, but he was not a creep like that. And he especially wouldn't have done that to London. She couldn't believe London had snuck away from the dance, managed to get into the dining room and actually get all the way back to her cabin without anyone noticing she'd taken a bottle of champagne along with her.

And at what time did Zack decide to leave the dance and Maya, to go see London? There were still so many questions.

**X**

"So…" Cody began, eyeing Zack from where he was sitting on Marcus' bed. "What you're saying to me is that, you woke up this morning in London's bed. There was an empty champagne bottle. You and her were both half dressed. And Bailey had been forced to bunk with Addison because you and London were hanging out at one in the morning?"

Zack sighed, and held his hands up, signaling to Cody that unfortunately, that was all true.

"Plus Maya's mad at you because you blew her off for London, but you don't remember why any of this happened." Cody added, as he continued on, making sure all his facts were straight, and honestly just doing his best to handle the information he'd been given.

"It's driving me crazy not knowing." Zack remarked, as he stood from his bed and began pacing back and forth down the aisle in the middle of the two beds.

"Well." Cody said, in an all-knowing tone, "You're memory of last night will eventually come back to you. The effects of the alcohol won't wear off until-"

"Alright stop." Zack interrupted, holding up a hand towards Cody, "You're making my head hurt again."

"Really?" Cody asked in reply, glaring up at him. "Well then your head will appreciate my next question."

"Which is what?" Zack asked, frowning. He really hoped his brother wasn't going to start talking code-phrases and big words again. Not only did they cause him headaches, he never understood them.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" Cody yelled loudly, as he jumped up to make even-eye-contact with his brother.

Zack flinched at the loud level his brother had spoken in, before glaring towards him. "Yes. Okay. Let's yell loud enough so that _everyone _hears what we're talking about!" he shot over towards the door and glared out the spy hole, before turning on his brother again, "And considering I don't know what I was thinking last night, I can't really answer your question."

"First of all, you know that drinking impairs your judgment, _and _your ability to think clearly!" Cody snapped, as his tone changed into lecturing mode, "So that was dumb choice number one." He ignored Zack's pointed stare and continued on with his ramble, "Apparently you haven't learned since last time, so here I am, yet again, having to remind you about the dangers of drinking and how unhealthy it is for your body."

"London was drinking too." Zack cut in, halting Cody's relentless pacing and flailing of his arms, "It's not like I drank the entire bottle alone."

Cody continued to just stare at him for another second, before his routine resumed, "Which brings me to dumb choice number two. Seeing as alcohol also heightens ones emotions and sex drive, you should have known better than to drink, with_ London._" He was still pacing, occasionally throwing his arms up, "Being in a room with an attractive female who had already been drinking, and then choosing to drink _with _her was a ridiculous decision. You set yourself up for this." He finally halted in front of his brother, who'd decided to sit back down on his bed and just simply let him say his piece.

"London _is_ attractive isn't she?" Zack murmured, as he propped his head in his hand.

Cody glared towards the ceiling for a moment. Okay, so that was a typical Zack response, but, really? He glared back down at him, "_That's _what you took from that?"

"Okay okay." Zack said, as he held his hand up and stood from the bed again. "I get it."

"Do you really? Because this is the 3rd time we've had to go over this, and quite frankly, it's 3 times too many." Cody replied, folding his arms across his chest in a fed-up manner.

Zack rolled his eyes, "Alright enough already." He sighed, and glanced down at the floor. After scuffing it a few times, and standing beside his brother quietly, he looked back up at him, "So what do I do now? Maya won't talk to me. London's in denial. I'm going to go crazy over not remembering, and if anyone else finds out about this, it won't be good."

"I'll say." Cody agreed, as he raised an eyebrow, "Could you imagine if Mr. Moseby found out?"

"I don't want to imagine that." Zack replied, shaking his head slightly. "It's bad enough that I slept with her at all. But imagining what people would do if they found out?" he shuddered slightly.

There were so many people who would want to cause him pain over this. Mr. Moseby, Miss T, Bailey, Maya, Marcus definitely. Not to mention London's father would probably have him executed in some foreign country where no one could hear his screams.

After going over many different ways in his head that everyone might try and kill him, Zack turned to Cody once again. "Am I supposed to just wait in agony for my memory of last night to come back?"

"Mm, probably." Cody responded quickly, as he walked over towards Marcus's desk, which was littered with soda cans and other various junk food wrappers. "Or you could always try talking to Maya again."

Zack couldn't believe his brother had suggested this to him. Well, he actually could, but, after the exchange they'd had this morning? No way was Zack going to try talking to her while she was still this angry. He walked over towards Cody, jaw hanging slightly open. "You want me," he motioned towards himself, "To go talk to Maya," he motioned towards the door, "After you seen the look she gave me this morning? Dude, I'd rather jump into shark infested waters."

Cody rolled his eyes, before reaching up and placing a hand on Zack's left shoulder, "Don't you want to find out more about what happened last night?"

Zack sighed, as he took a step back from Cody and folded his arms over his chest. Yes, he really did want to know more about last night. Like crazy. But more than likely, Maya wasn't going to talk to him about it. She wasn't going to magically get over her irritation towards him. Though, he could always use his charm, she had always been different from the other girls. Didn't really fall for it as easily as the rest did. Damn the luck.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in Zack's head, and he turned towards his brother, directing an almost curious gaze towards him.

Cody knew what this look meant. And there was absolutely no way, none whatsoever, not a chance in hell, he was going to give in to his brother's cowardice this time. He'd created a huge mess. One that Cody wanted as little involvement in as possible. "Forget it Zack. I'm not bailing you out this time."

"Oh come on." Zack replied, this time putting his hand on Cody's shoulder. "I don't want you to 'bail' me out. I just need you to convince Maya to talk to me so I can figure this out."

Cody sighed, gazing at his brother. He really hated it when he was put into these situations, and Zack, being a master of manipulation, always managed to get him to play some small part in things. As much as Zack and London should both suffer for their foolish decisions, Cody couldn't help but be curious himself over how and why the two of them had ended up in bed together. Damn. He could be such a push over sometimes. He sighed again, "Alright fine. I'll do it."

Zack held out his arms, as if he wanted to seize his brother into a hug, but before he could get there, Cody placed his hand on Zack's chest to keep him at a distance, "But that's all I'm doing. I'm not convincing her to forgive you." He gave him a pointed look.

Zack gazed back at his brother silently. It was almost like Cody expected him to say something. But he really didn't know what he was getting at with that last statement. Maybe he did deserve to have Maya mad at him for a while. Still, at least Cody was going to help him attempt to piece together last night's chaos. He raised an eyebrow, "Can I hug you now?"

Cody rolled his eyes. It was going to be a long day. He could feel it in his bones.

**X**

London exhaled deeply as she slumped against the side of the shower. She'd taken one that morning, but for some reason she felt like the water would relax her. She'd been tense since waking up. Thank God her headache had finally gone away. Between waking up with Zack, listening to Miss T drone on for 2 hours, and then Bailey asking her 20 million questions within the span of the late afternoon, she was spent already. She actually, genuinely felt stressed. She normally didn't let things get to her so bad, but it had been constant chaos from the moment she'd opened her eyes this morning.

She didn't know what to do about Zack. They'd had plans today too. They were going to go up to the Fiesta Deck that evening to eat. Which wasn't a big deal. They did it all the time. But what was she going to do now? Was she still supposed to go? Was he still going to be there?

Were they even friends anymore?

She had to admit to herself, this entire situation had made her feel really out of place. She didn't know what to think about waking up next to him. Did they really do what he said they did? Why would they do that together? Why would they even consider it? She knew she would never do something like that with him if she had a say in the matter. Apparently, when alcohol is involved, according to Bailey, 'people do things they normally wouldn't with each other'.

So if that was the case…what was going to happen now?

Was this going to change everything? Was it going to destroy the strictly friendly relationship that used to be between them?

Damn she really needed to get away from this ship. But unfortunately, she wouldn't enjoy herself if she did. I mean, sure, she'd spend her obscenely high allowance. She'd flirt with some exotic men. She'd find a way to make sure everyone on site knew she was 'the' London Tipton and that her daddy probably owned the ground they were walking on. She could fake a smile. Not let anyone know that she was really thinking about deeper things.

But at the end of the day she would come back to the ship. Nothing will have changed. She still would have woken up with Zack. Still would have spilled everything to Bailey. Still would be thinking about it all.

There had to be something she could do to get her mind off things for a while. Would talking to Zack help? Should she just shrug everything off like she'd been trying to do all day already? Or would that make it worse?

Too much. It was all just too much.

Then, it hit her.

Cody.

She needed to talk to Cody. He was good at giving advice. Maybe he could help her find a way to direct her attention elsewhere for a couple hours.

**X**

"Hey Bailey."

The girl from Kettle Corn froze in place. Her pencil stopped moving on her paper and her eyes widened. 'Okay Bailey, breathe. Just…act normal.' She told herself as she turned around to face the person whose voice that belonged to. As soon as she made eye contact with him, she felt weird. After finding out from London what had gone on this morning? After thinking about the fact that he had slept in her room…with her roommate…Argh! She had to stop thinking. She glanced over her shoulder towards him, as he was preparing to pull up a chair. Great. Now she was going to have to make conversation with him without seeming like she was nervous about knowing the secret.

"What's shakin'?" Zack stated, flashing her his trademark smirk as he plopped down in the seat beside her.

"Uh." Bailey started, glancing back down at her paper again. She'd lost her entire train of thought, and confidence as soon as he'd spoken to her again. This was not going to go well. "I just uh…" she continued, before mustering a fake smile and facing him, "I needed some air."

Zack waited a couple seconds, before nodding slowly. "Riiiiight." He replied, as he watched her fidget with her pencil. She sat there silently, not making any kind of eye contact. Come to think of it, she hadn't looked at him this morning either. Was she not feeling well? Maybe it was that time of the month. Never the less, she seemed stressed. "Are you alright?"

Finally she glanced up at him. Eyes wide, face flustered, seeming as if she was about to lose her mind, she dropped the pencil out of her hand. "Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be? Do I seem like I'm not?"

Zack drew back slightly. What the hell kind of response had that been?

Bailey glanced back down at her paper. Damn it. This secret was going to completely undo her. She looked up at Zack again solemnly, who was still gazing at her, and seemed to be a little freaked out. She sighed. "The truth is Zack…I've got something on my mind that's just, driving me crazy right now."

"Huh, yeah, know how that feels." Zack replied all knowingly. He was slightly relieved that at least now he knew somewhat why Bailey was acting so strange. She was just thinking way too much. Which was exactly what Cody did most the time. This would be an easy fix. He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest, "Well, you can lay it on me if you want."

"Well see, it's…it's complicated." Bailey responded, now beginning to tear the corners of her piece of paper off. "It has to do with some people I really care about."

Zack sighed. It figured. "What did Cody do?" he asked, almost annoyed. "Did he blow you off for study group again? Because I've gotta tell you Bailey, he's just really intense about-"

"It's not that." Bailey interrupted, holding up a hand to halt Zack's current rant and giving him a strained smile. "It's not Cody."

"Oh." Zack replied, as a frown came to his face. Anytime Bailey went into a mood like this it was usually over Cody. So he was back to being confused. "Well then is it London?"

Bailey felt her breath catch in her throat when she heard London's name escape his lips. Was he really going to be able to figure it out that easily? What was she supposed to say?

Zack studied her face for a moment. "Well, Bailey, again, you know how London can be. You've gotta be used to her insults by now, but, what name did she call you that upset you this time?"

Bailey once again glanced over at Zack and her eyes locked with his. It was the most uncomfortable eye contact that she'd ever made with him, and when she spoke again, her voice felt weak, and faint. "She didn't insult me."

Zack continued to study the look on Bailey's face. She said that London didn't insult her and he believed her about that. However, she didn't say that her mood change wasn't about London. So it had to do with her somehow. What the hell had the heiress managed to do since just this morning? It had to have been this morning because Bailey was acting strange before class started, which meant it was right after he had left London's room.

Then, it clicked. Of course! Why hadn't he thought of it before? London can't keep a secret. No wonder Bailey was acting so strange. Zack's brows furrowed. His fist clenched slightly. His gaze became much more intense as he leaned slightly over the edge of the table, "What exactly did she say to you." He stated, more so than asked.

London was going to hear about this. He hoped she was happy. All he wanted her to do was just keep this one thing quiet until he could figure it out. But no. She had to go and tell the first person she had seen. How many others had she told by now? He wasn't necessarily angry, he was just frustrated. Irritated. Annoyed.

"Look you can't blame London." Bailey told, noting that his entire demeanor had changed. He looked like he wanted to set something on fire. "I'm the one that asked her."

"What would make you ask her something like that?" Zack wondered seriously. I mean, really, why?

"Well, a lot of things seemed to point to that. There was the finding her dress in the shower. The champagne bottle. You were both up late together in the cabin." Bailey explained, "And then there was your shoe."

Zack sunk into his chair. Skulking. Arms still crossed as his mind wandered. Maybe Bailey finding out was inevitable, sure. They had obviously left some evidence lying around. But still.

"She didn't want to tell me Zack. In fact, she doesn't even believe anything happened." Bailey continued, as Zack grunted in response, "But if it did happen, this is serious."

Zack shifted his eyes over towards her, "It doesn't have to be serious. I mean, it's not like I've never slept with anyone before."

"No, but this time you slept with London Tipton." Bailey responded quickly, arguing the point, "Have you even thought about what would happen if Mr. Moseby found out? Not to mention her father?"

Zack held up his hand to halt her continuance of the subject, seeing as he'd already thought about it. He leaned up again. "Yeah yeah, I have."

"Then what were you thinking?" Bailey stated simply, finally getting to say what she had wanted to say to him since that morning when she'd first found out.

"I don't know." Zack told, for what he felt like was the thousandth time that day, "Because I don't remember."

"And when you do start to remember?" Bailey asked, causing Zack to delve deeper into his thought process.

That was a damn good question. What was going to happen when London did remember? What was going to happen when the truth became clear and there was no way to wave it off as something else? What then? Zack felt his headache starting to come back. Thinking like this was not his strong point. He didn't want to talk to Bailey anymore. He needed to go back to his cabin, get some Tylenol, and then track down the princess herself so that he could play the guilt card on her for telling Bailey. Just for good measure.

**X**

"Cody."

"Maya. You know? You're surprisingly hard to track down. Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"Took the day off. I'm not feeling well." Maya replied, as she turned on her heel and headed back inside her cabin, frown on her face.

Cody noted that she'd left the door open so he could enter, but he wasn't so sure he should just yet. He didn't know what kind of mood she was in, and after this morning he didn't want to risk being at the brunt of her fist if she decided to swing at him for pushing too many buttons. He was still irritated that he was here in the first place, but he'd told Zack he would talk to her.

"Are you really not feeling well?" Cody prompted, "Or are you just trying to avoid a certain someone?"

"Whatever you prefer." Maya replied, as she walked over to her bed table and picked up a water bottle from the top of it.

Cody raised an eyebrow as he slowly inched a couple steps into the room. He still wanted to test the waters a bit before he would feel comfortable enough to actually walk in and take a seat, but, he was curious as to what exactly Maya was doing. She actually seemed upset and bummed out over what happened with Zack. Well, she had the right to be of course, but, she was the one who was like 'no strings attached, no feelings involved'. Zack was still on a trial, strictly friendship basis with her. Last night was the first night she'd actually agreed to let him take her out. And it was to a school dance, it wasn't like it had been anything extremely special. So her behavior at the moment was slightly puzzling. He listened to her take a few gulps, and when she turned around to face him, she looked annoyed almost by the fact that he was still there.

"So." Maya asked, "What do you want Cody? If it's to talk about Zack, I don't want to hear it."

Bullseye. What was he supposed to say now? He was a pro at bailing Zack out of his consequences, but, the tone in Maya's voice just seemed completely die-hard. He could tell no amount of pleading was going to get her to talk to him anytime soon. Zack was probably just going to have to sweat it out himself.

He started to take a step back and bid her farewell, but something caused him to hesitate. So maybe he wouldn't be able to help Zack out by asking her to talk to him about last night. But maybe, she'd tell him what happened. Because damn it, he did not want this situation to last for very long especially since he'd been dragged into it. If she could fill him in on any of the story at all, he could just relay the message to Zack and maybe that'd trigger some kind of memory. Once this puzzle was pieced together they could all find a way to move on. And hopefully not ever have to speak about it again.

"You know." Cody began as he took a few more steps into the room. Maya still had a questioning glance on her face as she stood there waiting for him to finish what he'd started saying. "I think Zack's a jerk for what he did to you, but I'm really worried about what exactly is going on here. Because it involves my brother, my brother's crush, and one of my closest friends, and I just, really need to know what I can do to help." He held up his hands slightly. "Because unfortunately it's what I do."

Maya continued to gaze at him questioningly, before she sat her cup of water down. "You want to know what you can do to help? Really?"

Cody wondered if this was some sort of trick question. I mean, he'd just stated that he wanted to help, and then she asked him if he wanted to. In what universe did that make any sense whatsoever? Still, she was already upset, so correcting her would not be the smartest of things. He settled on a slight nod.

Her scowl deepened. Her fists clenched. Cody swore he could almost see steam coming out of her ears. She stormed over to him, and he backed up until he was against the wall beside the door. Damn. If he'd have just slightly stepped to the right he would be in the safety of the hall and not being glared at as if it was his fault everything had gone wrong for Maya last night. She leaned into him, "Then do me the favor of telling Zack that he can DROP. DEAD!"

Okay. Yeah. Cody would _not _be conversing with this girl ever again. He nervously reached over with his arm and grasped the doorframe, before inching out from in front of her. When he was finally able to get a foot out the door, he muttered a quick, and very nervous, 'yeah, sure, no problem', before the door was slammed in his face.

A hand flew to his chest, where he could swear he felt his heart racing a million beats per second, and he leaned against the wall outside the cabin. Okay. Maya had always seemed so calm and collected. So what the frack had that been? An inner demon?

"Oh my God…" he mumbled to himself quietly, "That was ridiculous."

So that had gotten him nowhere, and he'd almost died. Never again.

"Oooh! Cody! There you are!" he heard London exclaim from down the hallway.

He turned around and once he actually looked at her, he found himself struggling to even greet her. Visions of her and Zack carrying on in their drunken stupor flooded his mind, and he could not believe that she had participated in such activities with his brother. Not to mention that he wasn't supposed to actually know anything about it. He clutched his head in his hand as he squinted his eyes shut.

London scampered up towards him, "I've been looking for you everywhere!" she informed, as she shifted her purse on her arm, "I have a question."

"Okay, London? I already explained to you why lifeboats aren't meant to store clothes and shoes, but since this is an everyday question for you, I've decided I'm just going to write the answer on a post it note and have Bailey hang it up in your room for you." Cody replied, still rubbing his forehead.

London completely ignored his statement, taking note that Cody hadn't even looked at her yet. "Does your head hurt?" she asked, immediately diving into her purse and shuffling through the contents. When she found what she was looking for, she pulled the bottle out and extended it towards Cody, "Here."

Cody glanced up at the bottle, "Since when do you carry around Tylenol?"

"Since this morning." London replied, as Cody took the bottle from her hand, "I've been taking it all day. It really helps with headaches. Which is weird because the bottle says 'extra pain real liver'. But instead of causing pain, it takes it away. And it tastes nothing like liver." She shrugged as Cody simply gazed at her. How was he supposed to respond to that?

He popped the lid off the bottle and took two of them, before extending the bottle back towards her.

"Only two?" London asked simply, as she reached out to take the bottle.

He drew his hand back. "How many have you taken?"

"I don't know." London replied, "Why?"

Cody pocketed the bottle and watched London frown. There was no telling how many she'd taken, and all probably due to the fact that she didn't simply turn the bottle around to read the directions. "Okay, so…" he folded his arms, "What's up? Are you alright?"

Well that was stupid. Of course she wasn't alright. She'd probably unknowingly overdosed on headache medicine, and she'd slept with Zack. But, still.

"Of course I'm alright." London replied, waving him off slightly, "Why? Does my hair look okay?" she touched it delicately, her eyes wide in paranoia.

Cody ignored her typical attitude and sighed. He was about to ask her why she'd come looking for him with a question, hopefully not about lifeboats, in the first place. But the door to Maya's cabin opened up again, and he immediately felt panic flooding him as he spun his head towards the upset girl that emerged from the inside.

"London." Maya greeted unpleasantly, as she glared at the dark haired heiress.

London did not like Maya's tone. Just what was her problem anyway? Once she fully focused on the heated girl standing in the doorway, she frowned, "Ugh! Where the heck did you get those shoes? They make you look ridiculous."

Maya clenched her teeth, and began to step towards London, "You know what? I-"

"I think what London meant to say was that she loves them, and we're sorry for disturbing you." Cody stated, adding a nervous laugh at the end of the sentence for good measure as he stepped in front of Maya, wedging himself in between the two girls.

Was this really seriously happening right now? Zack deserved the _biggest _ass kicking in the world right now.

London's jaw dropped, "You couldn't possibly think that I would like those-"

Cody spun on his heel immediately, and held his hands up, "London, please. Now's not the time to-"

"Oh so what? Now you're going to run to her rescue too?" Maya snapped towards Cody, who spun around to face her yet again.

"No, I just think that after what happened last night, the two of you probably shouldn't be anywhere near each other at the moment." Cody stated.

He heard a gasp from behind him, and he immediately realized his error. He turned around again.

"How the heck do you know about last night?" London asked, her eyes narrowing slightly, and upon seeing Cody's look of complete nervousness, she gasped again, "Zack _told _you?" Cody glanced at the ground. God, why. Why why why was he stuck here in this situation right now?

"That great big jerk!" London could not believe this. After he'd pressed the issue of her not telling anyone what had happened, which, she still didn't believe had actually happened, he goes off and tells Cody the first chance he gets? She huffed uncontrollably, and stamped her foot.

Wow. Talk about throwing a fit.

"London, hold on, I can explain why Zack-" Cody started, but was cut off yet again. Okay, so maybe London had the right idea by taking more than two Tylenol.

"Oh you can Cody?" Maya asked, her voice lingering from behind him as he turned to the side this time. He was tired of completely spinning. At least now all he had to do was turn his head. Maya flung her hand towards London, "Because I sure would like to know why Zack ran out on his _date _for the likes of this out of control bit-"

"You had better not finish that sentence!" London snapped towards Maya, pointing a finger of warning at her, "I know people who can get rid of you, and there will be no trace!"

"London." Cody sighed, "No one is getting rid of anyone. Now can everyone just _please _calm down?"

The two girls standing on both sides of Cody continued scowling, but they were silent, seeing as he seemed to mean business at the moment.

"Maya." Cody turned towards her with his hand up, "You have every right to be upset with Zack, but fighting with London about it right now is not the answer. So just, go back in your room, take a few days, and don't worry about the rest for now." He then turned towards London. He once again felt himself at a loss for words as she blinked at him curiously. Not only was he in a bad position because she'd found out Zack had told him, but now Zack was going to be mad that he'd spouted off at the mouth and blew the entire secrecy thing out of the water. After trying to come up with anything to say, he finally settled for grabbing her by the arm and pulling her along down the hallway, "Just come on."

He heard Maya's door slam again behind them as he continued to lead London off down the girl's corridor, and he decided to have a mental drill session with himself. Most of it was mental questioning though. And the same question kept on popping into his head. How the hell, in just mere minutes, had this entire situation gone to complete crap? He hated his life sometimes. He really truly did. And this day had so far been a perfect reminder as to why. He'd rather be working right now, catering to all the whiny, needy, towel hogs on deck, _with _Mr. Moseby breathing down his neck.

"Ooh! Just wait until I get a hold of him!" London seethed in anger, as she continued to allow Cody to pull her along with him. When they reached the end of the corridor and finally stepped out onto the side deck, Cody released her arm and turned to face her.

"Okay, London, I know you're upset with Zack, but you have to realize-"

"Well well."

Why the hell did everyone seem to be cutting him off today? It was really getting to be ridiculous.

"If it isn't my best pal, London." Zack greeted, as he walked up beside her and threw a rough arm around her shoulder.

London threw his arm off and turned on him, face furious. "You! How dare you tell Cody!" she snapped, "You said it was a secret!"

"Well it was!" Zack immediately snapped back, folding his arms angrily and leaning towards her, "Until you told Bailey!"

London gasped and did her trademark hand over her mouth stance. Cody leaned over the railing. Really. If he ended it right now, at least he'd be at peace. He shook the thought away immediately. What the heck kind of emo thinking was that? He needed to snap out of it. He'd been in situations like this before. They just usually didn't involve London and Zack both.

"Well the only reason I had to tell Bailey was because you left your stupid shoe in the middle of my floor!"

"You could have made something up! I know it's not out of the realm of possibilities for you to think of something _completely_ ridiculous!"

"For your F.Y.I., I _did_ make something up! I told her I borrowed it!"

"For your F.Y.I.? Really London?"

Cody sighed. He pulled out the bottle of Tylenol that he'd confiscated from London and stared at it for a moment. Did he really need to take more? Well, the impulsive answer was yes. But the logical answer was no.

"CODY!" they both shouted towards him at the same time. He glanced at them, both wearing heated expressions on their faces. Seeing them together, this angry with one another, after committing acts such as they had the previous night…one would figure they shouldn't be so wound. Argh! Bad visions again. He really had to get a handle on this if he wanted to rule out thoughts of suicide. He didn't know if he should abort his current position, or stay just in case someone tried to draw blood.

"Cody! I told you that in confidence! But yet somehow she found out I told you anyway? How the hell did you manage this one?"

"Cody! You'd better protect your buck toothed cow woman tonight because she's untrustworthy and poor! Not to mention she dresses badly! And she's messed with the wrong London Tipton this time!"

"You're the _only _London Tipton."

"Aw save it smoothie boy!"

Maybe they just needed to argue it out like this. Maybe this would end up having a healthy effect. He watched as London smacked Zack's arm with her purse. Zack reached out and grabbed the purse.

"Get your grubby hands off my purse!" London snapped, as she tugged it out of his grip.

Damn. Where was Kirby when he needed him?

"Okay okay okay." Cody spoke as he threw his hands out towards them. They still weren't paying attention to him, so he emitted a couple more louder 'okays!' They turned towards him. It was like déjà vu.

When he was certain he had almost all their attention, he let his hands drop to his sides, "Obviously you've both committed the same offense here. Zack," he motioned towards his brother, "You told me about what happened last night. And London," his eyes shifted towards her, "You told Bailey."

Zack and London exchanged a glare, but remained silent.

"Even though the two of you can't remember much, it's obviously enough to get you both in serious trouble." Cody stated firmly. "So what I think you both should do is go discuss this in one of your cabins, and out of ear shot of everyone unless you want this to get around even more than it already has."

"I'm not going anywhere with him." London protested almost immediately, as she stole a glance at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Well that's great, because I wouldn't go anywhere with you if you paid me to!" Zack snapped back.

"I wouldn't pay you anyway!" London replied, squeezing her purse underneath her arm like she was protecting it from a thief. "Especially after you crashed my slumber party last night!"

Zack threw his hands up in the air and let out a frustrated and loud sigh. "It wasn't a slumber party! It was us! Sleeping together!"

Cody's eyes widened at the fact that Zack had just announced to several by standers, the news of him and London's endeavors from the previous night.

Zack was trying to calm himself down. London was looking at him, horrified. He glanced over at Cody, whose jaw was hanging slightly open. That's when he realized the entire section of side deck that they were occupying had gotten eerily silent for some reason. He slowly gazed around, and when he noticed that everyone's attention was in fact on them, he laughed nervously, "Uh…what I meant was us sleeping together in _separate _beds." He looked at London again with an almost pleading look in his eyes, and she quickly fell into the role of playing along.

"Uh yeah, of course you did silly." She swatted his chest lightly as he threw an arm around her. "Cause we would never you know…sleep _together_. That's just crazy." She joined him in laughing nervously.

Cody slapped his hand to his face. Yeah. Not good. As he watched Zack and London attempt to smooth things over with the curious looking passengers, his eyes scanned the area for 3 different people. Okay. No Mr. Moseby. That was great. No Miss T. That was great too. No Bailey. That sucked. He really needed her for backup right now.

Somehow, the huge monster that Zack and London had already created for themselves last night, had managed to get bigger. Really, he shouldn't have been surprised. I mean it was _Zack _and _London._ Enough said.

"Yeah I mean, we…we," Zack was still laughing nervously as he pointed back and forth between himself and London, "We're best friends, we would never…"

"Never." London agreed, as she waved dismissively towards Zack, as if to make the idea of it all seem ridiculous.

This was out of hand. They were about to start making things worse again. Cody noticed that some of the by standers had already walked away from the babbling pair, and others were quickly losing interest in their fake charade. This would be the perfect opportunity to get them the hell off the deck.

"Hey!" London shouted, as she pulled a wad of cash from her purse and held it in the air, grabbing some of the people's attention once again, "I'll pay all you people if you can pretend to forget everything he just said!" she motioned at Zack in disgust, who only glared at her in return, as she faced the by standers again. Some of them looked interested in her offer. But most, were still just walking away.

"No you won't. Come on." Cody said, once again grabbing London by the arm with his left hand, and grabbing Zack's arm with his right. "We just need to get out of here before people start asking questions."

He ushered them along with him as they vacated the spot. This was not going to have a good outcome. Once they got into the boys corridor, which Cody hadn't really had a definate plan on where to take them, Zack ripped his arm from his brother's grip, "Dude, quit man-handling me!"

"Well I wouldn't have to 'man-handle' you if you would have just shut up and listened to me!" Cody snapped in reply. "And I don't appreciate being dragged into the middle of this. Which I told you specifically I wasn't going to allow in the first place!"

"All I asked you to do was talk to Maya!" Zack argued back, flinging his hand in the air.

"Well just so you know? I thought that Maya, was going to kill me!" Cody fired towards his brother, before glaring over at London. "And then her and London decided to start in on each other!"

It had been London's turn to be silent and stare incrediously at the two brothers while they sorted out their differences. To think this was all happening over what had taken place last night. Was it really this big of a deal? It obviously was to Zack, that she knew for sure. But should it be a big deal to her also? She wanted to just operate under the impression that nothing had happened. But maybe that wasn't the answer.

"Well you really blew it with her Zack, she's not going to talk to you. In fact, she told me this, and I quote, 'DROP DEAD'. "

"Did you explain to her that I didn't remember? It must have been some kind of emergency or else I wouldn't have left her for _London_!" Zack motioned towards her as she pulled her cell phone out of her bag and flipped it open.

Ouch. What was that supposed to mean? London pushed her hurt feelings aside for a moment. She didn't like it when Cody and Zack argued like this. All aggression and no understanding. She was hoping what she could bring to the table would help them. At least, make Zack feel a little better, even though his previous statement was stinging her for some reason. She felt her eyes start burning, as she couldn't help but completely focus on what he'd just said. Why should she care that Zack wouldn't have come and seen her unless it was an emergency? It had to just be the way he'd said it. Just bluntly put it out there. With no regards to the fact that she was still standing right there. She flipped through her phone, and found what she was looking for before shoving the phone into Zack's hand.

Zack halted himself mid-sentence to glare at her, but his face immediately softened. What the hell? London didn't look right. Her eyes were red, her expression was shaky and seemingly unstable. She was looking at him, but she no longer seemed angry. She seemed...genuinely upset.

"I hope this helps." London murmured, before turning from them both and walking away.

Zack watched her go and took a couple steps after her, "London, wait!"

She ignored him. She didn't stop until she knew she was out of his sight.

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**AN : Once again, sorry for the wait on the update. Hopefully this will hold you guys over for a little while, and I will start working on the next chapter here as soon as I can! Thank you, thank you all for reading! And I hope you still enjoy! **


	3. MIA

**AN : First of all, thank you all for being, so, so patient with me over this chapter. I'm truly sorry it took so long. I had a couple of side projects I was working on. My one shot - Radiant, and a couple videos, I hadn't put anything out on youtube for like 3 months, so I felt like in between writing this, I would try and be productive elsewhere too. Still though! It's been a while! Might I also add that you guys are seriously awesome, because I got so much great feedback for last chapter, and I'm really stoked you guys like this story! Each and every review brings a smile to my face, so thank you all for being kind enough to let me know what you're thinking about this fic. And also to let you guys know, the video I was working on, is in fact Zack/London - so for all my fellow shippers, you can go check it out on my youtube channel - stephluvvsyou, or if you just want to search for it, it's called 'Zack/London - In My Pocket, and let me know how I did! But here we go with the story. I've kept you waiting long enough! **

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_Disclaimer : I do not own Suite Life On Deck or any of the characters associated. _

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What Happens On Deck

Part Three - M.I.A.

X

Zack was baffled, staring blankly down the corridor London had just escaped out of. He held her cell phone in his right hand as he turned to Cody. "What the hell was that all about?"

Cody raised an eyebrow at this as he folded his arms. "Well." he began, but before he could continue, he was interupted for what must have been the thousandth time that afternoon alone.

"I mean, she looked like she was about to cry!" Zack flung his hand out again, before placing it, along with his other hand on his hip, cell phone still in his grip. "Did you see her crying?" he slowly began to pace, and Cody refrained from speaking so that he could enjoy watching Zack rack his brain with reasons as to why London had just left the way she did.

Of course, Cody knew the reason. But Zack? He never really had been the greatest at conserving a girl's feelings. He always spouted off at the mouth without thinking first. He knew a lot about women sure. But not their feelings.

"I mean, geez," Zack mumbled, "You figure she'd be happy to have slept with the most good-looking guy on the ship, but she's not, and..."

Cody rolled his eyes. At this point, Zack was carrying on a conversation with himself. And he was still missing the big picture. He had to stop his rambling brother before his ego inflated any further. "Zack!" he snapped, reaching out and gripping his shoulder.

Zack immediately halted his talking and shot his brother a puzzled expression.

"You just stomped all over her feelings!" Cody pointed out bluntly, hints of irritation in his tone.

Okay. So for the most part, Cody didn't get involved in Zack and London's relationship. They existed together on a level that no one else did. But, at the same time, he wasn't going to stand by and let London become just another hot girl to Zack. They'd known her for years, and he treasured her to an extreme level. He knew Zack did also, but he was letting this entire 'sleeping together' incident carry him away. Maybe it had happened, and maybe things were going to be strange for a while, but at the end of it all, Zack needed to remember that it wasn't just some girl involved this time.

He also had to give Zack a little credit though, because despite his previous comment, he was definitely concerned as to why London had left like that, looking like that. Cody could see it written in his eyes and all over his face. Zack had a big heart when it came to London, he just needed to be reminded of that.

"What do you mean?" Zack asked, clearly curious over the statement, "If you're talking about my arguing with her, I mean, we're both stressed out over this." he continued, "And London gives me more credit than that, she knows more than anyone how I can be when I've got a lot on my mind."

Cody had never really seen Zack this wound over London before.

"You know how we are when we get into it," Zack was still going, and Cody could tell this was about to drive him crazy, "She's slammed doors in my face, she's thrown things at me, she's paid people to frame me so I'd get in trouble with Moseby, but I've never seen her look like that." he pointed down the hallway again.

"Alright, alright, I'll just make this easy on you." Cody held up his arms, as if motioning the frantic and rambling Zack to calm down for a moment.

Cody scanned over Zack's expression, which currently seemed to be displaying a mixture of misery and panic. "You said, 'it would have had to be an emergency, or else you would have never left Maya for _London_,' " he informed, waiting to see if the light bulb in Zack's head was going to turn on. I mean…it should. He watched his brother ponder for a few seconds, but when he turned back towards him, he had the same confused look on his face.

"So?" Zack shrugged, "What's the big deal?"

Cody sighed, his shoulders slumping down in defeat. Once again, Zack was completely missing the point. He faced down for a moment before gazing towards him again. He countered Zack's look of bewilderment with a blank stare, and muttered a half sarcastic, half annoyed, "Really?"

"Ah, enough of your babbling, I'm going to talk to her." Zack waved him off, and immediately set foot down the hallway. He wasn't going to stand there and deal with Cody's crazy talk. He had an upset woman to find.

He didn't get very far before hearing Cody clear his voice from behind him, and he stopped. Now it was his turn to be annoyed as he slowly spun on his heel, "What?"

"You'll only make it worse." Cody said, shaking his head slightly as he took a couple steps to stand near Zack again.

"How would I make it worse?" Zack questioned, "Surely she couldn't have taken what I said seriously. I mean, again, she knows how I am when I've got a lot on my mind."

Cody sighed, a smirk playing on his face as he reached up and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, "Zack Zack Zack…"

Zack scowled at Cody as he sensed another lecture coming on. His headache was seriously coming back at this point and he was tired of looking at his brother. He wanted to talk to London.

"After you're many years of playing the field, after meeting countless girls, after being the _biggest _womanizer in history…" Cody paused for a moment, before pointing towards him, "And might I add the cinema franchise has nothing on you…" his voice trailed off again and Zack huffed.

His glare bore towards Cody. Nothing he could say or do would ever make him stop loving his OCD, know-it-all twin. But ohhh man, were there times when he just wanted to punch him.

"You still don't understand women." Cody had finally finished what seemed like to Zack was his fifty thousandth spiel.

"London's not a woman, she's a heiress." Zack said almost quickly, as if it was some sort of answer to the entire fiasco.

Cody's jaw dropped slightly, "That's your excuse? Because she's a heiress you think that makes her less of a woman?"

Zack rethought his last statement and sighed, "Okay, that's not exactly how I meant it. It's just that when it comes to her feelings, her being upset is usually over something like breaking a nail or going an entire day without shopping." He folded his arms and glanced off, "Not over something I'd say to her."

"Point taken, but," Cody tried to think of a way to explain this to Zack without making him feel completely horrible, "All women can feel insignificant especially when someone they care about implies that they are."

Zack shot Cody an almost frightened look, the expression 'I really didn't mean to,' felt written all over his face. Feeling completely awful, he glanced down at the ground. Damn it. He hated it when Cody made sense. Especially about women, a subject in which, he felt he was an expert at. He gazed back up, his face solemn, "So what should I do?"

"Well, let's see. What's today, Tuesday?" Cody pondered out loud, "On Tuesday's you usually have dinner with London on the Fiesta Deck."

Zack glared at his brother. Seriously? Did Cody have to know _everything_? Was there no private moment in life?

"Well I'm probably not going to have dinner with her now." Zack said, lightly throwing his arms in the air. If what Cody had said about the way he'd made London feel was true, there was no way she was going to want to see him. Not anytime in the near future. Which would not be good. He'd die without her. He felt like he was already dying without her now. The thought of her being genuinely upset with him was enough to make him want to kill something. Like Mr. Moseby's hanky collection.

"You have to." Cody replied almost immediately, turning towards him with a look of expectancy, "If you blow her off then she'll believe you meant what you said. Right now she's feeling hurt."

"So then why don't I just go apologize to her now?" Zack asked, wondering why the heck he should prolong London's pain.

"No that's too fast." Cody replied, momentarily giving Zack a look that almost made him feel ashamed for even suggesting such a thing, "She needs time to bounce back from the pain she probably felt when you said that. You can't take advantage of her vulnerability."

Zack blankly stared at his brother, wishing that in some way, he could just shoot himself. Not literally of course, but I mean, really? Was he really having to stand here and take advice from Cody about a woman? The woman that he knew better than anyone else? Obviously he'd been a real jerk to London, but he just wanted to go now and hurry up and make things better.

Their conversations and thoughts came to a halt, when the cell phone in Zack's hand, which had been seemingly forgotten about, began to go off. Cody jumped slightly as the tune from 'Yay Me, starring London Tipton' started playing. It was like something out of a nightmare. He just couldn't seem to ever get away from that damn theme song.

'_London Tipton's really great, really great, really great._

_London Tipton's really gr-'_

Zack had pressed the silent button on the phone. He didn't know how in hell he'd forgotten that he had London's phone in the first place, but he did know one thing. And that was that he'd probably saved Cody some nightmares, considering how he'd started fidgeting once the song had started playing. He had to take a moment to smirk at his twin, who, upon the phone being silenced, looked more relieved than Woody after exiting a restroom. The entire phase of London's web show had caused Cody to really resent that song. Not because he didn't think London was great. But because the song was so catchy, it'd been permanently etched into his mind for quite some time even after London called the show quits.

"Dude. Bailey is calling London's phone. Should I answer?" Zack asked, as he shot his brother, who was just finishing recovering from mental stress, a questioning glance.

"Of course you shouldn't." Cody replied, his voice deadpanned. "It's not your phone."

Zack waited until Bailey's picture disappeared from the front of London's phone, and after the words, '1 missed call', appeared, he flipped the phone open. It was time to find out why exactly London had left her phone with him in the first place, and he didn't want to risk getting distracted again. All he had to press was the exit key before what London had apparently already pulled up for him to see was in full view.

He glared at the phone for a second, before reading it out loud. "My daddy hates me." He looked towards Cody, who mirrored his puzzled expression.

"What is that about?" Cody pondered, walking over so he could view the text also.

Zack shrugged, as he gazed off, seemingly entering a trance of thoughts. If he was ever going to unravel the mystery of last night, he was going to have to dive right into the tangled mess of thoughts, or lack there of once again and really figure this thing out. What he knew so far was, one, he left Maya at the dance last night to go see London. Two, he and London both drank. Three, he and London both woke up with little covering them clothes wise. Now this text. This was obviously going to answer the question as to why London had text him. He didn't want to have to ponder through her phone though to find out the reason why she'd sent him that text. He wanted to go to her. Find her, scoop her into his arms and talk about it with her. Even if this was the 2nd time he'd be doing it. Last night he'd been drinking. It didn't count.

He turned to his brother again, "Dude. I can't wait until tonight to talk to London." He motioned at her phone, "This is serious."

Cody sighed, and folded his arms, "Agreed." He flipped his bangs out of his eyes and glared at Zack, "But make sure you apologize for what _you _said."

"Right." Zack snapped his finger in determination.

'5…' Cody began counting silently to himself. '4…'

There was the look of confusion.

'3…'

The staring blankly off trying to recall what it was he was supposed to remember.

'2…'

Zack looked towards him.

'1…'

"What'd I say again?"

Cody scoffed in annoyance, "You made her feel like she didn't matter to you!" he snapped, "Which by the way might I add, it doesn't matter what you're doing, when friends need you, you should be there for them."

Zack took this as his opportunity to leave quickly before Cody went off on yet another rant. He had to find his favorite heiress. Well…she was the only heiress he knew. But the point was.

Cody had another 'lecturing' expression on his face as his hands rested on his hips and he stared at the ground. "And what I mean by that, Zack, is that friends are more important than your 'conquests'. Women come and go…well…for you they come in great numbers and go, but at the end of the day, your friends are always going to be-" Cody cut himself off when he glanced up and noticed he was alone in the hallway.

He glared and threw his hands up in the air, before mumbling something to himself about being 'unappreciated for his knowledge.' Oh well. He needed to get ready for work anyway.

**X**

London sighed as she flopped back into her bed face first. Her hair scattered across her pillow upon impact, and she thought for a brief moment about just letting herself suffocate into the pillow. But then she figured she was just acting too extreme and rolled over onto her side.

She'd never been so bummed out over something Zack had said to her before and she really didn't know why it was affecting her to this extent. I mean, her and Zack had had disagreements and arguments before and she'd never felt so…hurt.

And then there was the text she'd found in her phone. She didn't recall speaking with her father on the phone, but she obviously had or else she wouldn't have sent Zack the text. She'd always wondered why people claimed to not remember things in the mornings after consuming beer or liquor. And apparently cham-peg-nay had a decent amount of alcohol in it also because she couldn't remember a thing still. It was bad enough waking up with a headache and Zack in her bed. Now she could share in the frustration of other's horror stories over drinking.

She just wanted this day to be over with already. Or better yet, to rewind time and not even pick up the bottle of cham-peg-nay. Or go to the school dance. Or supposedly answer her dad's phone call. Or text Zack.

She'd do it all differently if she had the chance.

And now, to top it all off, she had another thing to think about. Dinner with Zack on the Fiesta Deck. She still wanted to go but at the same time she didn't. If she went, she would want things to be back to normal. You know. Talking about simple things like shopping and from his end, football games. She didn't want to argue with him anymore. She didn't want to talk about last night, or her father.

Yeah. She'd spent wayyyy too much time actually thinking today. More than she ever wanted to do in her lifetime. I mean, she thought about things, but not like this. This was too heavy.

Still her mind was stuck on the evening. Go? Or don't go?

Was he even going to go?

She obviously didn't mean much to him. Not after what he'd said to her. I mean, had that been some kind of underlying hint that she had ruined last night for him? That something had to be wrong with her to be privelaged enough to enjoy his company?

She thought they were close.

Guess she was wrong.

Well. Her mind was made up then. She wasn't going to have dinner with Zack tonight. No way. He obviously didn't want her in his way anymore. Especially ever since Maya had come on board. But she had to get off this God-forsaken ship or she was going to lose her mind.

Luckily, she had a back up plan.

And as far as her father was concerned…who needed him anyway. She'd been on her own for years.

**X**

"Zackary Martin."

Zack halted in his pursuit to the elevator, still in search for London, and turned on his heel.

"What kind of chaos are you causing my passengers today?"

Zack glared at Mr. Moseby. Seriously, the grudge this man had been holding against him for so many years now was ridiculous. He raised an eyebrow at the short man standing behind the desk. "Has anyone come to complain?"

"Surprisingly no." Mr. Moseby responded, aiming a suspicious look at him anyway.

"Well then I didn't do it. Gotta go!" Zack replied, turning away from him again and punching the 'up' arrow outside the elevator.

"Halt." Mr. Moseby said, holding his hand up and stepping out from around his desk, "Why are you in such a hurry and what is that in your hand?"

"Mr. Moseby." Zack sighed, turning towards him again, "Now I know that I've caused you a lot of stress-"

Zack was cut off by Mr. Moseby huffing towards him, "A lot?" he mentioned in a bit of a heightened pitch. "Now there's the understatement of the year."

Zack shot him another glare, "The point is." He paused, waiting to grab Mr. Moseby's attention again before he continued, "I don't always have a scheme in mind." He continued, " And I'll have you know that many other people contribute to your misery on this boat."

Mr. Moseby grunted in disbelief, folding his arms over his chest.

Zack's jaw dropped open slightly, "It's true!" he defended, "Remember that time Woody put the sticky note on your back that said 'kick me'?"

"You bribed Woody into taking the blame for that by buying him a Super Chalupa." Mr. Moseby argued, his eyes drifting off in memories of that horrible day.

Zack looked like he was going to argue, but decided against it, seeing as how, he hated letting other people take credit for his pranks. "Yeah true." He mumbled, as he faced forward, "Oh!" his eyes widened again as he pointed towards Moseby, "What about the day you slipped off the balcony and fell into the hot tub?" he smirked, thinking he really had him this time.

"I didn't slip and fall." Mr. Moseby replied in a grumpy tone, "_Someone _conveniently left their skateboard at the top."

At this point Zack burst into laughter. "It doesn't matter where I leave it, you always manage to trip over it."

"Oh would you just!" Mr. Moseby snapped as he waved his arms towards Zack, hoping it would cause the cackling twin to just be quiet.

Luckily, it did, and Zack cleared his throat and silenced himself completely. Geez. How long did the elevator take to arrive? He decided to change the subject. "Have you by chance seen London?"

"No." Mr. Moseby replied, before his look of suspicion came flooding back, "Why?"

"I uh…" Zack began. He was definitely going to have to give him the _least_ amount of information, and _least _amount of reason to suspect him of being up to something. He glanced down at the phone in his hand before holding it up slightly. "I need to give her phone back."

Zack figured Moseby was going to start drilling him with questions as to why he had London's phone, but instead, he seemed to ignore the fact completely.

"When you find her, tell her I need to see her immediately." Moseby said, in his 'business-man' like tone of voice. It was also the same tone that hinted big trouble. "Apparantely she skipped out on the school dance and was seen by a couple passengers wandering around in the dining hall."

"Uh…" Zack tried not to laugh nervously.

Mr. Moseby shot him a pointed stare, "You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

Zack scratched the back of his head cluelessly, "Of course, course not." He fumbled with his words slightly, "I was at the dance."

Damn passengers. What else had they seen besides London wandering around in the dining area? Had they seen her take the champagne bottle with her? How much did Mr. Moseby _really_ know?

The elevator dinged behind him. Thank Jesus. He stepped backwards into it, "Well, see you later Mr. Moseby." He said as he smashed the elevator button with a clenched fist. He really needed to get to London. And fast.

**X**

"Why exactly are you packing your things?" Bailey asked in confusion, from where she was sitting on the side of her bed as she watched London throwing several things into a suitcase.

"I can't tell you. Or you'll go blabbing your buck-toothed mouth to everyone." London snapped, as she glared at Bailey before abruptly throwing a pink shirt into the suitcase. "Just like you blabbed to Zack that I told you about this morning."

Bailey drew back slightly, surprised at just how edgy London was being at the moment. "First of all, the only reason I said anything is because I'm worried about all of this." She started, holding a finger up, "And another thing, I don't appreciate catching the brunt of your bad attitude."

London scoffed slightly. She really just didn't feel like dealing with anything anymore. She couldn't wait to get the hell away from everyone. She realized that her attitude may not be pleasant for anyone to be experiencing, but she felt it was justified. "Well newsflash! This situation doesn't concern you. It is between Zack and I." She motioned towards herself. "It's going to blow over in a couple days just like everything else!" She waved her hand in the air and turned away from Bailey.

"Sleeping with someone does _not _just blow over!" Bailey argued, watching London add another 2 pairs of pants to the suitcase before slamming it shut.

Bailey stood up from the side of the bed, "London you can't just run away from this problem."

"Stop telling me what I can and can't do Bailey!" London snapped again, as she retreated to the bathroom and re-emerged seconds later with her toothbrush. "God, you know? Everyone is _always_ on me about something."

Bailey was still baffled by London's sudden 'fed up with the world attitude' but she continued to try and reason with her anyway. "London what's going to happen if your father finds out about this? Have you even given any thought to any of this at all?"

London seemingly ignored Bailey's last statement, as she grabbed her makeup bag. She finished shoving her belongings into a small luggage bag, and slung it over her shoulder. She grabbed her purse, and her suitcase.

"Are you listening to me?" Bailey snapped in frustration, standing behind the heiress as she managed to get the bag, her purse, and suitcase all on her own. She didn't really know what to do about London's behavior. She felt completely out of control in this situation. She'd never seen London so upset. Did this really have everything to do with Zack? Another indication that London was out of sorts was the fact that she was in fact, carrying all her own luggage. Cody usually got stuck with that job. Or Zack. Or Woody. Whoever needed money at the time and would take her bribe. But she never carried it herself.

London gave Bailey a tired glance. "I don't have a father."

London pushed past Bailey like a bulldozer. Not in any mood to be stopped or questioned again.

Bailey stood frozen, only turning her head to watch London leave the room. What the frack?

**X**

"And then she just…left." An emotional Bailey was venting to Cody, who was folding towels at his station.

It'd only been 5 minutes, if that, since London had left Bailey alone in their cabin. She didn't know what else to do. She was worried. She had to get to someone who knew London better than she did. Since she had no idea where Zack was at the moment, she'd come to Cody.

"Alright. Well." Cody began, as he slid a stack of towels to the side, "When London's upset she usually goes shopping. I've never known her to just take off."

"Well she did." Bailey replied, one of her hands slapping the counter as she leaned onto it. She exhaled deeply.

Cody could tell she was stressed, and the last thing everyone needed was to be wound up more over last night's situation, and how London and Zack were dealing with it.

"I mean, it's a side of her I've never seen before. She seems sad and depressed." Bailey continued on, glancing over at Cody again, "I didn't even think that she was capable of being moody like this."

Cody sighed. He was quite tired of everyone underestimating London's ability to be human. "Look Bailey, she had a hard night. She's having a hard day." He told, as he took the stack of folded towels and placed them under the counter. "Maybe it'd be best for everyone to just leave her alone."

"Leave her alone?" Bailey asked, a bit of irritation in her voice as she deadpanned a gaze at him, "How can you even say that? It's the first time she's really shown deep emotional stress and you want to just 'leave her alone'?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Cody replied back, irritation in his voice also. "The girl deals with more pressure than you would ever _dream_ of dealing with. She's continuously hounded and expected to act a certain way to please everyone around her."

Bailey was taken aback by Cody's sudden defense of the heiress, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that every once in a while people need to lay off. Because when even her friends expect that out of her, it's a sad day." Cody replied, annoyed, as he grabbed a handful of unfolded towels and plopped them onto the counter. He noticed that Bailey's expression seemed to reflect hurt, and he immediately felt bad for how he'd spoken to her. "Bailey, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean it like that. It's just that…"

Bailey gave him a sideways glance, but didn't make any kind of actual contact. She was interested in what he was going to say to fix the way he'd just made her feel.

"We're all concerned about London. But the fact is that it's not even been a full day and she hasn't for one second been able to catch a break about it. Not to mention remember it." Cody frowned, realizing what he said would confuse most people, "If that makes any sense."

"I got it." Bailey replied.

Cody smiled slightly. Of course Bailey got it. She had a much better brain and thought process than 'most people'. But he could tell she still wasn't feeling anymore at ease, so he sighed, "My point is, that Zack is the one who needs to take care of London. Until they sort out what happened between them, nothing we try to do could make them feel better." He reached over the top of the counter and took her hand in his, "I know you're a good friend to her, but you and I are here for support. Not to play main roles."

Bailey managed a half-assed smile for Cody, but was still feeling like he'd made a personal jab at her. I don't know, maybe he was just as stressed as she was, he was just doing a better job of hiding it. And maybe he was right, maybe she should just ease up about the London and Zack situation a bit. Let Zack handle her on his own.

"Okay so Zack can deal with it then." Bailey finally said, and Cody nodded along with her as he continued his towel folding. "But she's gone. How's he going to find her?"

**X**

"What do you mean _she's gone_?"

"MIA Zack. She wouldn't tell Bailey where she went. But she took clothes, makeup, and apparently a toothbrush." Cody paused. "And just in case you don't know what that means, it's missing-in-acti-"

"I know what it is! I play Call of Duty." Zack snapped in response, clearly agitated because his brother always assumes he's a complete idiot. "I've been looking for her _everywhere_." he sighed, as he sat London's cell phone down on the towel counter. "When did Bailey tell you this?"

"Almost two hours ago." Cody replied. "I haven't seen her on deck at all."

Zack folded his arms across his chest as he leaned onto the counter slightly. "It doesn't make sense why would she just take off like that?" a thought briefly crossed Zack's mind and panic flooded his expression, "A helicopter hasn't landed here today has it?"

"No." Cody responded, "And if it had, you can bet Mr. Moseby would be pacing around up here, but he isn't. So she didn't escape by way of copter."

Zack felt himself relax a little bit. So she still had to be somewhere on this ship. But where was the big question. "Alright. If I can't find her by the end of your shift you have to help me."

"Have you ever thought about the fact that London may really need to be alone right now?" Cody asked his brother. "I mean, this is a pressing issue and it really needs to be dealt with between the two of you, but maybe she needs a while to think about things. Without discussing it."

"London? Needing time to think about things?" Zack questioned his brother, wondering what the heck he was even thinking with that last statement. "If that's the case then I don't know her as well as I thought I did."

"She _is_ human Zack." Cody exclaimed, once again feeling annoyed by the fact that no one seemed to be giving London any kind of credit.

"Trust me. I know that." Zack defended himself, putting a lot of emphasis on his statement, because Cody should know better than to doubt him at all as far as 'knowing how London works'. "But think about it, even when London _is _upset she doesn't need alone time. This is new. Even for me."

Cody watched his brother shifting around his weight as he continued to lean on the counter. He wasn't wrong. "Look you don't have to stop looking for her or anything. But the way she's acting right now is different. She usually jets off to a shopping spree or something when she's upset but this time she didn't. She's hidden herself away from everyone. And last night is a big deal." He explained, while Zack appeared to be listening intently. "And this thing with her father. I mean, what do you think it could be about?"

Zack sighed as he turned around to face Cody, folding his arms across one another and propping them up, "You're guess is as good as mine." He said, before adding in a quieter tone, "He probably blew her off for some business related something again."

"Or another wife." Cody piped in, disbelief and sarcasm in his voice. If it was one thing Mr. Tipton was _not _good at, it was being London's father. "She told Bailey today before she left that she had no father."

Zack raised an eyebrow when he heard this, and his mind wandered off again, trying to think of every various and possible reason why London would say that. Even if her real dad wasn't there for her, she still had Mr. Moseby, right? Sure it wasn't the same, but he'd always been a better dad figure to her than the real one had. It just made him want to go find her more. He leaned up off the counter and wrung his hands together nervously. He felt like he needed to find her fast. Plus the guilt from earlier on had been eating him alive all day as it was. He was about to go crazy without her.

Cody could tell Zack was about to lose his mind. He leaned over the counter and talked quietly, "Look Zack you standing here freaking out isn't going to find her." Even though Cody believed London should just be left alone for a while, Zack wasn't going to be able to rest until he knew where she was, "My shift ends in 20 minutes. Why don't you go find Woody and Marcus so that they can help us look for her. I'll tell Bailey to wrangle Addison in."

Zack gave Cody a frantic nod. "It's not like she's in danger. She's just in hiding. We'll find her though alright?"

Zack nodded again, and he felt a little better. What Cody said was true. She's not in danger. She's just in hiding. He knew that, but what was more upsetting was the fact that London felt like she had to hide from everyone. I mean, he'd had a bad day too. His priorities had been all kinds of screwed up. First it was Maya he had desperately wanted to talk to. So he could apologize. So she'd give him another chance. But now his main concern was finding London, because maybe somewhere deep down, she was more important than Maya. It was more than he was willing to admit out loud though. He wasn't trying to make London his girlfriend. Getting dates had always been his most important focus in life, but maybe this time it was backwards. At the moment, finding London was definitely occupying his thoughts more than going to talk to Maya. And then of course there was the not remembering things. Usually he would have been able to remember the previous night's events after waking up with a hangover by now. But for some reason, he still couldn't.

He knew that he and London had obviously slept together. She'd left the school dance last night, snuck into the dining room and managed to get out with a bottle of champagne. She'd been upset by her father, and then she'd text him, and he'd left Maya at the dance to go to her. Those were the blunt points of the night. But no other pieces of the puzzle had surfaced yet. Maybe that's how it was supposed to be. Maybe not.

"I'll meet you back here in 20 minutes." Zack told, turning to bolt down to the boys' corridor.

"Actually meet me at my cabin. I need to change, and we need to go over some kind of organized game plan." Cody replied, giving Zack an all-knowing, don't-question-my-judgment expression. "Especially if we wind up being out after curfew. We're going to have to take certain hallways to avoid Kirby, and Mr. Moseby."

"After curfew?" Zack questioned hesitantly, "Do you really think it'll take that long?"

"It's a big boat Zack." Cody said, "Her father built it, and even though she sometimes pretends to not know her way around, she's been familiar with every square inch of it longer than we have."

Zack frowned. Cody _always_ thought of everything. Which is why Zack really loved having him around. Well, that and the fact that he was his brother and he loved him. Most of the time. "Wow Cody. Never would have thought about that."

Cody smirked in a haughty way, "Of course you wouldn't have."

Zack scowled, and without saying anything else spun on his heel and walked away from his 'full-of-himself' twin.

**X**

"Okay so Bailey you've got the top floor. Addison you've got 2nd." Cody read off the assignments as they all stood together outside of his cabin. "Marcus you're on lower deck one." He turned to glance at Woody, "You're on lower deck two."

"Is there a snack bar on that floor?" Woody asked, before Cody could continue on. He glanced up at him with a blank stare, and Zack mimicked his expression. Marcus glared at him in disbelief.

"I swear." Zack began, pointing a threatening finger towards Woody, "If I find you in a kitchen somewhere, my size 9 is going right up your ass."

Woody drew back, his jaw dropped open slightly. "Hurtful!" he folded his arms across his chest and huffed.

"Okay, Zack's going to be on the basement floor, and I'll be on maintenance floor." Cody finished up, folding a blueprint of the ship up and shoving it in his pocket. "We'll meet here once every hour. Too risky to call each other so make sure your cell phones are off."

"Question." Marcus piped in, and Cody responded with an 'mm-hm'. "Why did London decide to disappear anyway? I mean, she never wants to be alone."

Cody shot Zack a nervous glance, who in response, wrung his hands together. He shared a brief glance with Bailey before looking back into Marcus' questioning eyes. "Well we're not really sur-"

"I bet it's because she and Zack slept together last night! Hadn't you heard? I mean, everybody knows that, at least everyone in class does, how did you manage to not hear anything about that? It's big news, it's bigger than-"

"Addison! Stop!" Zack bellowed, as he held up his arms in a frantic attempt to get the continuously hyper girl to be quiet. His eyes were wide as saucers, as he took a deep breath, and stepped towards her, "Who exactly did you hear that from? And what do you mean everyone knows?"

Marcus was frozen in place. He couldn't believe this. Please say it wasn't true. Please say it was _not_ true. Zack and London? They were close, but no way! He'd been in love with her ever since he'd arrived on the ship, there was no chance Zack would move in on the woman he'd set his sights on, right? "Hold up hold up." He said, taking a couple steps forward as well. He glanced at Zack, who at the moment, seemed to be having problems making eye contact with him. He immediately felt upset. No eye contact was a sign of guilt or nervousness. His expression hardened and his voice was stern, "Why the heck would people spread a rumor like that Zack?" he paused, while Zack stumbled back slightly to create some space between them. Marcus stepped forward, closing the gap again, "It is just a rumor, right?"

Zack was getting irritated at this point. How dare Marcus get in his face like this. It wasn't any of his business anyway, and the dude had been chasing the dream for too long now. London wasn't ever going to date him, no matter how hard he tried. His face snapped up, "Dude, back off." He held up his hands.

Bailey nervously stepped forward, and managed to edge herself in between the two boys. Facing Marcus, she gave him a reassuring smile, "Of course it's a rumor." She laughed nervously, "I mean, just think about it."

Zack glared at Marcus from over Bailey's shoulder. Cody glanced towards Zack while Bailey worked on edging Marcus further and further back.

"I'm just saying what I heard." Addison replied, and for once didn't drone on and on after making her point.

"See?" Bailey motioned towards Addison with her arm. "It's only what she's _heard_."

"Besides, I'm sure if Zack really would have slept with London, he'd be bragging about it right now." Woody added, a huge smirk across his face, before getting abruptly distracted by a room service worker who was wheeling a cart of food their way.

Zack huffed, and folded his arms across his chest. He didn't owe anyone any kind of explanation about London or himself, or what they did last night. Especially Marcus. But how was this getting spread around? Addison had never gotten the chance to explain herself. He could ask her later though, this was pointless. "Alright who cares about what people have heard, we're wasting time here."

"Agreed. We can discuss things later." Cody added, before double checking to make sure his flashlight was working right. He was going to be on the maintenance deck. Which is where the engine room, the boiler room, the lighting systems, pretty much everything that made the ship function was. He wasn't going to be in the lit corridors where guest rooms were.

"Hey Cody listen man, why don't you let me be on the maintenance deck?" Zack inquired, noting that while Cody had been checking his flashlight batteries, he seemed uneasy about it.

"No way." Cody replied almost immediately, "I don't trust you around machinery."

Zack frowned. What he really wanted to do was give Cody a swift kick in the ass for that. But he wouldn't. He was more so thankful that Cody was being such a big help right now.

"Alright. So one hour." Cody stated again. Everyone gave each other silent nods, before noticing that something had gone missing in this equation. "Wait." He said, glancing around, "Where's Woody?"

Everyone looked up and down the corridor, puzzled as to where the food-craving-kid had disappeared off to.

Zack looked annoyed, "I think I know." He walked a few doors down, where he had seen the Room Service worker walk in just a mere minute ago, and re-emerged seconds later, dragging Woody along with him by the collar. Woody didn't seem to care, for in one hand, he held a chicken leg.

Everyone rolled their eyes before parting ways. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

**AN : Question corner! :) Where do you think London went and do you think she should be left alone, or do you agree that the gang should be looking for her? What would you do? **


	4. The Executioner's Block

**AN : Okay, I knowwww with all my heart that every one of you are probably frustrated beyond all imagination over the fact it took me so effing long to update this story. And I deeply, DEEPLY apologize. I don't know what it is, but I am just horrible at updating my fics. And now, to make matters worse, this chapter's a little short compared to the first three. - sigh. **

**Anyways, I do want to thank those of you who are still reviewing and reading, and adding this story to your favorites. Thank you so much for your continued support, despite the fact that I suck. Your reviews are amazing, all of you are very sweet, and I take each and every word to heart.**

**I can't really blame the lack of an update on writer's block as much as I can blame it on over all business. I still feel there's no excuse, but I'm honored that you guys have kept checking back for updates and expressing concern over the updates in direct messages. I'm at least proud to say I can give you something today. :) **

**Also - for those of you interested, (even though I suck at updating this one too) I do have another chapter story in the works called 'Attached At The Hit'. Only 2 chapters in, but unlike this story the chapters are extremely lengthy, and I will definately be updating it next. If you're interested, please check it out and let me know what you think. It is the exact opposite of what this story is in many ways, however, it still concerns what I believe to be the best version of the 2nd golden trio - Zack/Cody/London. Well. Technically it's just Zack and Cody so far. London's coming next update. But anywho! (sorry for rambling there).**

**Here I present to you part four. Thanks for your patience!**

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* * *

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What Happens On Deck 

Part Four - The Executioner's Block

X

Zack paced the basement level corridor for what must have been the hundredth time already, and there was no sign of London from his end. He wasn't sure if it was his impatience that was driving him to pace and fidget at the same time, or his nerves being shot over the fact that he hadn't had a conversation with London in so many long hours, or if it was his desperation to find her. Either way, mentally, he was in pretty bad shape. He just wanted to find her and apologize to her, so that this could all be over with. Who the hell cared at this point that they had slept together?

Well.

A lot of people would if they knew. Which, apparently people were finding out somehow. He just hoped this news didn't get back to Mr. Moseby, Miss T, and Mr. Tipton...although _he_ didn't seem to give a damn about London anyway. He didn't want Maya to hear this either. Then he'd really never have a shot with her. I mean, he could probably charm her into forgiving him somehow, but...it would take a _long _time for her to actually get over it. And even then, things probably wouldn't be the same.

He couldn't believe how reckless he'd been last night. Though he hadn't recovered any more pieces to the puzzle yet. That's another reason why he wanted to find London so bad. Because then they could sit down together and actually figure this out once and for all.

The other reason he wanted to find her so bad was because he desperately needed her.

He didn't understand, for the life of him, why his attachment to London had gotten so severe. He didn't even know _how _it happened. They were just friends, but the fact of the matter was, that Zack _avoided _attachment at all costs, because he didn't like the feeling of having to _need_ someone. But he supposed that while he was busy making sure that he didn't get too close to a romantic interest, or one night stand, whatever you'd like to call it, he forgot to be careful with his friendship with London. He would always wander around on deck, boasting to Cody about how being 'free' and 'playing the field' was so much better than being in a _real _relationship with someone.

But at this point he felt like a hypocrite. Unless...he didn't consider his friendship with London real enough.

He mentally kicked himself. Of _course _what was between himself and London was real. Their friendship had taken a lot of work. Years of work, in fact, to be as close as they are. The days at the hotel, when they were still pretty new to each other, Zack found himself _avoiding _her sometimes. It took a long time for him to truly understand her. Find out what made her tick.

But still. Going from avoiding someone, to needing them on a daily basis was a big deal. At least for him. He didn't know if he should be angry with himself for allowing it to happen, or just deal with the fact that it was what it was.

It wasn't until after she'd left to Seven Seas High that he really discovered he might lose someone he wouldn't be able to stand losing. Before he and Cody had found out they were going also, the thought of not seeing London until Christmas Break had almost made him want to throw up. He'd felt panicked. Edgy.

Kind of like right now.

He sighed, as he reached the west end of the hallway again. He turned around and glanced all the way down it again. He was tired of pacing. He hadn't found her yet, and this wasn't going to find her either. So, he was going to have to take things to the next level.

X

"You did what?"

"I...kind of broke down someone's door."

Mr. Moseby felt his hands, as they clenched into unavoidable fists. Zack knew this routine almost better than he knew himself and Cody though. He wasn't worried about the fact that Moseby was getting upset with him. He was worried about how long he was going to have to stand here and be snapped at.

"Why the heck do passenger's stay on the basement floor anyway?" Zack asked, trying to change the subject, if only slightly, "It's downright depressing there."

Mr. Moseby squinted his eyes slightly at Zack, but stopped himself from blowing a gasket, and instead decided to take a deep breath. He'd trained himself to do this during times like these. And he'd had _a lot _of practice perfecting the art. He brought his right hand to his eyes, and used his fingers to rub them stressfully. "Well you're going to have plenty of time to be 'depressed down there', because you are going to spend the entire weekend _fixing the door you broke_."

When Zack opened his mouth to protest, Mr. Moseby cut him off with an 'Ah ah ah! I don't care who you have a date with." he glared at him, eyes wide.

Zack folded his arms across his chest and scowled, turning his gaze away from the short man behind the desk in the ship's lobby.

"A better question now, is going to be." Mr. Moseby began, in that stern tone that Zack hated so much, but was so used to hearing, "Why the heck were you down there in the first place? That floor is off limits for students." he lectured, before taking another glance at Zack and adding, "And hooligans."

Zack scowled, but decided he should maybe let Moseby know that London was missing. After all, Mr. Moseby would order a full-blown search, and would be relentless until he found her. He glared towards the floor, avoiding Mr. Moseby's burning gaze, expectant for an answer to his previous question. "I was looking for London." He murmured.

"London?" Mr. Moseby replied as he tilted his head slightly, "Why would you be looking for London?"

Zack huffed heavily, vaguely shaking his head back and forth. He'd begun to shift his weight from his left foot, to right foot. He couldn't stand this anymore. All the questions. Everyone always had to know _everything _about everything. It was ridiculous. He glared up at Mr. Moseby. "For the obvious reason." He replied sarcastically, "She's missing." He held a hand up, before letting both his arms fall to his sides.

Mr. Moseby was trying not to let the panic spread across his face. When London went missing, it was never good. He'd had to track her down so many times, and each time he found her, she was in a different place. At first, she'd started disappearing to random spots on the ship. But obvious ones. The department store. The toddler's lounge to watch puppet shows. The janitor's closet. Then she got a little more gutsy. She'd go down to her shoe submarine for hours. But now when she would go missing, she'd blow things way out of proportion. She'd have her private helicopter come get her and take her to Parrot Island. To Italy. Spain. Canada. Wherever the heck she wanted, because she was London Tipton. That and the fact that money talked.

Without another word, Moseby spun on his heel, away from Zack, and headed back towards his lobby counter, where he would no doubt, make the call to security quarters, and issue the search.

Zack raised an eyebrow as he watched Moseby manage to get to his desk in only three strides. For a small man, he sure could move when the situation required him to. In a way, he felt relieved. London would no doubt be found now. And quick. But. When she _was_ found, how would things be between them?

X

Within the hour, everyone on board had been woken up. Security was searching people's cabins, closets, literally everywhere for the missing heiress, but there was still no word. Zack was perched at the smoothie bar on one of the stools, miserably bouncing his right leg as his head was propped in his right hand, leaning onto the counter. Addison, Woody, Bailey, Cody and Marcus were lined up at the counter as well, while Mr. Moseby nervously paced the deck with Miss Tutweiller.

"I don't see why Mr. Moseby's so nervous. I mean, they _will _find her." Bailey commented to no one in particular, just to whoever happened to be listening. When no one replied to her, she mumbled a, 'although London is particularly good at disappearing.' To herself.

Zack spun around on his stool and faced the rest of the group. They all looked tired, and sleep deprived, but more so than anything, they all looked worried. Even Bailey, who'd been the most positive out of all of them when they'd shown up empty handed, and also 'busted', as Mr. Moseby put it. Apparently, he wasn't too happy with any of them with coming to him sooner, and informing him of London deciding to disappear. And, well, it had made matters worse when he noticed they'd decided to take things into their own hands and look for her themselves. He'd said, 'kids wandering the decks at all hours of the night' was 'unacceptable'. So they were all facing detention. Even hyper-as-all-hell Addison was quiet as she spun her stool around. Over. And over. Zack didn't see how she hadn't gotten sick from dizziness yet.

However, the most busted of them all was Zack. Not only did he get the punishment everyone else was getting, but he also had to spend the weekend fixing the door he broke. On top of that, on the mental and emotional side of things, Maya wasn't speaking to him, and his friendship with London felt broken.

His eyes scanned the deck. Mr. Moseby was trying to calm down some guests who seemed pretty angry that they'd been dragged out of bed for a cabin search. As his eyes continued to wander around, they fell on Maya, who was huddled near to a couple of her friends.

He felt the sudden urge to get up and go to her, but Mr. Moseby had made it clear that he was to remain at the smoothie bar no matter what.

So. In that case.

Zack pushed himself off the stool and headed Maya's direction.

"Zack!" Bailey called to him as he walked away. When he ignored her she glanced at Cody, "Why is he leaving? Mr. Moseby told us all to stay here."

Cody sighed. Really Bailey should know the answer to this one. "Since when has Zack ever listened to Mr. Moseby?" he leaned up and looked at her with tired eyes. "Besides. His mind functions along the lines of 'I'm already in trouble. What more do I have to lose.' "

Bailey watched Zack walking towards Maya in silence. Yeah. She really should have known.

When Zack finally reached Maya, having to skillfully hide behind a couple of stray passengers, when he'd notice Moseby glancing in his general direction, he wasn't at all alarmed by her attitude towards him.

"What do you want, Zack?" Maya snapped, giving him a glance that said she really didn't want anything to do with him at the moment.

"Look, Maya." Zack replied, leaning into her slightly, trying to be as exclusive as possible, despite the fact that Maya's friends were standing right there. He gave them a quick glance, before lowering the volume of his voice and letting his eyes fall on Maya again. "If you just give me a chance to explain-"

"Explain what?" Maya snapped loudly, which caused Zack to retract backwards a little. "Explain that you left me last night to tend to the most obnoxious female on this ship? Explain that on top of her getting everything she wants anyway, that you also have to cater to her every need?"

At this point, Maya's voice had risen considerably higher. Zack had begun to back up slightly. This side of Maya was seriously scaring him. He'd never seen her quite so upset as she was now. And he wasn't sure how to feel about it yet. He figured she had a right to be angry, but this was flat out furious. She was relentlessly in his face. Every time he took a step back, she took a step forward. He didn't take well to this. This would be the second time this evening someone had been in his face like this. First Marcus. Now her.

"Explain that, maybe I was the stupid one after all?" Maya continued, seething with anger as her arms flailed wildly and violently. She wanted to make a point here. "Explain that giving you a chance was a bad decision even though you've begged for one for months?"

Zack peeked his head around the deck slightly. It'd become ridiculously silent, and he felt everyone's eyes bearing into them to witness the scene currently revolving around himself and Maya. Unfortunately. He peered towards Mr. Moseby, who didn't quite understand yet what was going on, but for once didn't want to get in the middle of things. He probably felt Zack deserved this ass chewing too, even though he didn't know what it was all about to begin with. Zack then directed his gaze back towards Cody at the smoothie bar. His eyes were glued to him with concern. He turned back towards Maya, seeing as he'd run out of room to back up, but she was still in his face, and he was about to open his mouth to say something, but she wasn't going to let him.

"Well explain to me something else Zack." Maya finally lowered her voice slightly as she folded her arms over her chest. "Explain to me why she's ruining everyone's vacation by keeping them up so late because she decided to run away on you."

Zack blinked a couple of times.

"Explain to me why everyone around here, seems to baby her so damned much!" Maya snapped, her voice rising again, but only for a split second. She sighed, because Zack was still silent. He was staring at her with a little bit of terror in his expression. "Better yet." She began, before dropping her arms to her sides. She was fighting to keep from crying at this point, though her eyes were burning. And she wasn't so sure if it was for the fact that she'd actually really started to like Zack. Or if she was just so mad at him she couldn't stand it. "Explain to me why everyone is walking around here, talking about how you slept with the whiny bitch."

There were gasps from all directions, from random students and passengers, seemingly the ones who hadn't quite gotten the latest gossip from that morning yet. Zack didn't even want to imagine the look on Mr. Moseby's face right now.

His head dropped slightly, and his gaze hit the deck's surface.

Cody glanced towards Bailey, whose jaw was slightly hanging open. He knew that this situation was going to have a bad ending, no matter who got the last word in. For Zack to stand back and take the amount of shit that he had just taken from Maya, was surprising in the first place because Zack had never, as long as he'd known him, been the type of person to take anyone's shit.

Zack rubbed his eyes stressfully, as he heard the sound of people start mumbling from various locations on the deck. What was he supposed to say to all of that? Normally he'd put up some kind of fight, but he was mentally exhausted from today's events, and still, the only thing he wanted most was for London to be found. But, however, he did have one thing to say to Maya. He lifted his head, a glare in his eyes. Silence swept over the deck again. "Don't you _ever_, let me hear you call her that again."

Zack and Maya's eyes stayed locked on each other for a moment.

Now it was Maya's turn to be at a loss for words. She couldn't read any kind of sorrow in Zack's eyes. Out of everything she'd just said to him, he'd only gotten hung up on the fact that she'd called London a bitch. She shook her head slightly towards him, backing away slowly. Her arms fell to her sides, and she could no longer stand to even look at him. She turned and was greeted by her friend's arms around her shoulders as they led her away from the situation.

At that moment, Zack felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He whipped his head around, ready to face Mr. Moseby's wrath, but it wasn't him. It was Cody. "You alright?"

"Fine." Zack grumbled back, slapping Cody's hand away lightly as it had attempted to rest on his shoulder.

Cody looked taken aback. "Well." He started sarcastically, "That's clearly not true."

Zack glared at Cody from the corner of his eye, but in all truth, he was glad his brother was right there by his side. He was certain Moseby, Tutweiller, and Lord knew who else, would be confronting him any moment over the piece of information that Maya had obnoxiously spilled moments ago.

He felt like he was falling apart right now. The secret was out. He'd just given Maya a piece of his mind. Which also meant that now whatever it was between them, which wasn't much but had potential, was forever gone. He could feel the pressure of everyone's gaze and he just knew they were gossiping about himself and London. He glanced at Cody, who had fallen silent, but he could see in his brother's eyes that even though this situation didn't concern him, it was bothering him. One thing about twins. You share each other's pain and power.

Zack's eyes scanned towards the smoothie bar, beyond everyone else's stares, and noticed that Marcus was no longer there. This wasn't good.

Everyone seemed to be leaving him.

"Zack." Miss Tutweiller's voice drifted through the air and into his range of hearing.

He glanced in her direction, not caring particularly for the tone she had used to grab his attention. Mr. Moseby, who still remained beside her, seemed extremely distraught, and for the first time, Zack couldn't blame him. London was like his daughter. He actually treated her better than anyone else in her life ever had.

Miss Tutweiller beckoned him towards them with her finger, and he exhaled deeply. He took a couple of steps in their direction, but stopped, because he needed Cody to come with him. As if his twin knew exactly what his thought process was, he felt his hand on his shoulder, followed by a low voiced, "Right behind you".

He hated how this moment was beginning to feel. Like he was a prisoner on death row. Walking towards the chopping block with Mr. Moseby as the executioner. An anxious crowd surrounding him, waiting to see his demise. When exactly did he turn into the bad guy?

Okay so maybe he hadn't turned into the bad guy.

But he sure was being made to feel that way.

There were going to be questions he didn't want to answer. And some he wasn't going to know the answer to.

And really?

The only thing he still wanted was to see London.

"Zack." Miss Tutweiller said awkwardly, as she kept her hands clasped together in front of her. She fumbled her posture for a moment, trying to figure out just what to say. Or…rather…how to say it. "Is what Maya said true?"

Zack could only think of one way to have this conversation. Normally he'd lie like a mad man to keep himself out of trouble, but he hadn't exactly felt like himself since he'd slept with London, and his normal perks, reserved and practiced specifically for situations like this were definitely going to continue failing him. He reached his arm up and scratched the back of his head, glancing off to the side. He then held his arms out in a slight shrug, "Pretty sure it might be."

"Pretty sure?" Mr. Moseby's voice piped in. "What do you mean, _pretty sure_?" he pointed at the Martin boy like he'd taken his final strike against him. He was clearly holding his anger in. Keeping it contained the best he could, but his voice was cracking. "Are you the real reason why London ran off?" he couldn't help it. There were so many questions. He was feeling the burn and he advanced on Zack, hoping he'd intimidate him somehow despite the fact that the twins had both grown slightly taller than him. "Because you've taken advantage of her like all of your other…" he clenched his teeth and waved a hand through the air, "_Conquests_."

Zack glared. He may have slept with London, but he did _not _take advantage of her. Did he?

Well…okay so the details were still fuzzy enough that he didn't know how things wound up like they had that night. But he assured himself at this split moment that if he had in fact taken advantage of her, he'd never forgive himself for it.

He definitely didn't see her as a conquest.

"What is she a trophy now?" Mr. Moseby continued to interrogate, "Are you going to, brag to all of your –"

"Mr. Moseby." Cody cut in, hints of anger flowing in his tone as he stepped between his brother and the desk manager. "You've known Zack for years, how can you even think that about him?" he paused, trying to read in Mr. Moseby's eyes if he was getting any sense into his head yet, "He's done a lot of things to upset you, but I promise this is something he wouldn't do just to earn bragging rights." As he finished, there was a bit of sarcasm in his voice. He couldn't believe Mr. Moseby would even suggest Zack as the type of person to do that. He had taken a step back, rolling his eyes in disbelief, and damn near chuckling at the nerve the small man had even had to accuse his brother of that nonsense.

Zack sighed, as he stepped in again, closing the gap that Cody had previously created between himself and Mr. Moseby. He wasn't going to back down from him. That would just make him look guilty of being all those things Moseby had suggested. But he had made up his mind about one thing; "I'm not talking about this anymore until London is found."

Mr. Moseby's eyes shot daggers towards him, "Well it's your fault she's even missing in the first place!"

Now Zack was getting upset. Mr. Moseby's words struck him deep. He already _knew _London had gone into hiding because of him, and he did _not _want to have to face that realization again. But now it'd been thrown in his face. Blatantly. Angrily. He was _crazy _about that girl. To think he'd been the driving force to cause her to leave was more than he could handle at this point.

Miss Tutweiller had been watching silently, with an almost fearful look in her eyes, though she wasn't going to leave Moseby's side. Not at a time like this. She could tell by the look on Zack's face though, that Marion's last statement had hurt him. Even she knew Zack cared about and had enough respect for London that he didn't view her as a trophy.

Cody and Zack were both feeling pretty angry. However.

They also knew that Mr. Moseby was just doing his duty.

He was being a dad.

"Geez. I leave for the day and it's like all of you can't find a reason to live."

Zack's ears perked. His heart raced.

The clicking of heels. Quick paces. The entire deck fell silent.

"Who died?" her voice cut through the thick silence. "Gasp! It wasn't me, was it?"

* * *

**AN : Reviews are appreciated! Although I'm not so sure I deserve them... **


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